I entered these wooded, carved battlegrounds with such childlike thoughts of naivete. How could a soldier entering this large area for battling find any argument/cause/issue/disagreement worthy (that could be solved in a room) to give up his life? 18,000 did just that in this very spot. All any of us have is our tent, our body, our life, and 13,000 Union fell in heaps, and 5,000 Confederate. Was this all about slavery, really?

Jesus said (Heb 10:5): “A body Thou has prepared for Me.” He took that shell and gave it away, and was taken from the earth. These humans gave their shell, and therefore rights to this earth, away.

Walking these steps in the open field, just looking down at the soil, and Genesis 4:10 arises about Abel’s blood crying out from the earth. With 18,000 lives and thousands more wounded, it was a blood-soaked earth. Was the soil crying out to me? Could I hear as I trampled on its grass?

The fear to lose one’s life: self-preservation was at a height as they dug the trenches after resigning themselves from the steep casualties of frontal assault, a trail side sign read. In my aloneness on this trail and considering my mere tent and vulnerability, Jesus told us: Fear not what man can do unto you. Fear Him who after man has taken your life can cast you into Hell (Matt 10:28). This was reassuring in my soul for the risks on this plot of earth. God is the One to fear.

I wondered: did many of these soldiers rely on that verse, have it etched in their pockets as they met eternity in those nine days?…………..