Title: On Shiloh Hill

Author: Sierra Crane

Rating: PG

Summary: A Civil War song fic.

A/N: I hope you like it!

***

*Come all you gallant soldiers,

A story I will tell

About the bloody battle that was fought

On Shiloh Hill

It was an awful struggle;

It'll cause your blood to chill

All from the bloody battle that was fought

On Shiloh Hill *

Twenty years had come and gone since that bloody day when Grant met the Confederate Army in Tennessee, but the memories would haunt him forever. He was sixteen at the time, but now thirty-six . . . could he really still be that young?

Married. A father now. He was supposed to be happy--and at times he felt that way--but on April 6th he was always quiet, on the seventh also. And now the day was marked by twenty years.

* Was on the Sixth of April

About the break of day,

The drums and fifes were playin'

For us to march away;

The feeling of that hour

I do remember still,

When first my feet went tramping on top

Of Shiloh Hill *

He closed his eyes. He was transported twenty years into the past and was standing on Shiloh Hill once again; he knew his wife and three young children were behind him, concerned. 'There is nothing to be worried about,' he told them silently, 'just remembering . . . '

* Was about the hour of sunrise

The battle it began,

And before the day had ended

We fought them hand-to-hand;

The hollers of the battle

Did my heart with anguish fill,

For the wounded and the dying that lay

On Shiloh Hill *

He knelt on the moist ground and ran his hand over the blades of green grass, smiling softly in spite of himself. He had made it. He had lived.

* Was early the next morning

We were called to arms again,

Unmindful of the wounded

Unuseful to the slain;

The cannon smoke did hide the sun

Ten thousand was the kill,

And streams of blood went running on

Bloody Shiloh Hill *

He felt the sweat running down his face. The gunpowder choked him. The smoke blinded him. The hill darkeneded under the cannonfire and the sun disappeared behind the smoke. All was dark.

* My uniform of blue was turned

To a purplish red,

When someone on a coming steed

Did strike me on the head;

I sent a bullet to his heart

And as he fell away . . . *

He shuddered at the memory and let tears fall freely from his eyes and down his cheeks, it was so hard to remember.

* I saw the face of my father

All dressed in bloody gray *

'I killed you!' he cried in agonized silence. 'Oh, Pa--you nearly killed me and I did kill you! What did that war do to us? I robbed my children of a grandfather . . . I robbed you of grandchildren . . . I robbed myself of a father.'

"I'm sorry . . . "

* Although we won the battle

My heart is filled with pain,

The one that brought me to this life

I'll never see again;

I pray to the Lord our Savior

Consistent with His will,

Lord save the souls of them poor boys that died

On Shiloh Hill . . . *