It is July 21, 1861. My name is George Willis, I am only 18 years old. Joining the military for men in my family is mandatory. I was the first one to reject the opportunity but with my pushy family, they forced me to. My father Frank Willis was a former general until he resigned. Today was a day that I had dreaded for a while. All three-million of us soldiers are waiting at Fort Sumter, for the enemy to attack. All of the sudden we hear gunshots going off and this is the time where we had to fight for what was right. We all knew that this battle wasn’t going to be a short. This would be an ongoing event. I was not excited in the slightest to hide from the enemy because in the military you fight and survive or you don’t. I wanted to run the opposite direction of the war and go where I knew I was actually going to be safe. After a couple of hours into the war, the sun was starting to set and each side was getting weaker and weaker. I had always had a worry in the back of my head which was even though both sides of the war need to sleep or eat or at the least sit down, would the enemy ever attack while people are sleeping or doing other things to help themselves for the next day of the battle. When we walked back to our campsite, with tents, fires and very little food  I started talking to Scott Phillips; one of the friends I had made earlier during our training. When everyone went to sleep a few hours later, I could hear my parents, family and friends telling me how much they were going to miss me and how I was doing something big, defending their home country. The next morning came very quickly, everyday the battle lasted it seemed harder and tougher each day. All I could think about for the next few months was,

“Why am I out here?, What’s my purpose?” I whisper to myself.

I had to tell myself everyday that this was for all of the people before me fighting for the land they love. It is now officially four months since the battle has started, we are starting to hit winter. That is a season that mostly all soldiers dread. That is because it is so difficult to focus on the war when you are worrying about if your uniform is going to keep you warm and especially safe. As the months went on, we were losing soldiers much faster. We started with three million and in late November, we had lost maybe 30,000 soldiers. Which I know is not a lot but losing that many people could have given us a “lead” if the southern states lost more than 30,000 people. Each night at our camp, our general would explain different tactics for us to use because at some points we were “winning” but at some other times, we were at an all time low.

“General, why do we keep changing the tactics so often?” someone said.

“It's like a trial and error, if the first time we fail we must try something different until it works.” general Ulysses S. Grant explained to us.

We had all worked so hard to defend our country, friends and family where there were times during the middle of the war where more than half of us just wanted to quit and not follow through. Now, let me break this down for you, if we started off with three million and more than half wanted to quit than we would be down to two million, two-hundred fifty thousand soldiers. That would not be good. The days of battle were flying by, in some cases thats very good because we all wanted it to end immediately. Now, it is about three years later and the war was still continuing it was becoming so weird to battle people because we saw them for three years prior, we all started to know their names and that got creepy because one soldier from the confederate side would yell,

“Attack Willis or someone's name.” that's when you knew you were in trouble, because you had about 15 people just running at you and all your hoping is that you won’t get killed. All i could think about during the war was,

“What do I think my family is feeling, with me being gone for FOUR YEARS!” I thought to myself.

“What if they forgot me, no way a family like mine would forget anyone, my dad still talks about his great-great-great grandfather who he hasn’t met”.

These thoughts would follow me wherever I went. Sometimes I would start daydreaming. Which is very hard to believe, when your in war because you put yourself in a life or death situation. Then all of the sudden I feel this harsh tapping on my shoulders and I turn around to see that it is Scott,

“Come on, what are you doing this is a battlefield not a cloud watching club!” Scott exclaimed.

“Sorry, I’m just thinking about home.” I said with a sad tone.

“We don’t think about home here just battling and “winning””. Scott demanded.

“Okay, Okay I am just new at this.” I said feeling sad.

“Just do what your told, no cry babies!” he said with force.

At that point I didn’t know what to think or say, I, I was speechless. What he said had really gotten to me. Out of nowhere, I hear this gun shot and it seems extremely close. I turn my head slightly and I can’t see it but I heard the bullet skim my ear. I knew that there’s no more cloud watching, this meant that I was a target and I had to make some changes. Yes, it was hard to go out a kill people in battle but it was the right thing to do if the Confederates won they would do bad things and our lives would change. Finally, a feeling I had waited for over the past four years hearing the Robert E. Lee announce,

“I surrender”

When those two words came out of his mouth, I could have jumped up and down, all of the time, effort, dedication and courage had paid off because we had just beat a tough army. I couldn’t wait to go home and be with my family. As soon as I arrived at my home, I opened the door and I didn’t see anything, I wondered.

“Where is everybody”?