All we can know for sure is that these men met twice during their long lives. So I make up a story about them.

A Confederate soldier and a Union soldier, 50 years after the war

The first time they met was by chance. They had chosen to join an Army, and under the orders of various commanders, they marched and fought. Hunger and hardship dulled their thinking, until they moved from one battle to the next like sleepwalkers, no longer caring where they were.

On a hot July day, they found themselves on opposite sides of a battleground in a little town called Gettysburg.  They were just two men in an overheated, seething mass of over 160,000.  They were tired and hungry, but they were also healthy and young. Fighting, even on an empty stomach, held a certain zeal for them.

They were lucky enough to survive this bloody battle – though 50,000 other healthy young men men did not.

They met again in Gettysburg, this time in 1913 and by appointment.

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