Civil war.

Back to the mine.

While Lucas was entertaining the old ladies, Linc got out the old
backpack he had left here at the farm and checked it out. In it was a
hatchet, fold up saw, first aid kit, emergency fire starter kit, a
thin rolled up rubber sleep mat, pack of tissues, sanitary hand
wipes, and dry soup mix, along with several energy bars. He added a
flashlight and extra batteries. Then decided to add a roll of duct
tape. Never know, it may come in handy.
After looking around, he went to the gun cabinet and took out a
semi-auto pistol and two clips and put them in the pack along with a
couple of bottles of water. He took the backpack, his belt with the
leather-man tool and water bottle and put them in the truck. He then
went to the kitchen, grabbed a handful of cookies and told Trudy he
was going up in the hills to take a hike.

Up in the canyon, he didn't stop at the cabin, but drove on past it up
toward the mine. When he was up here last time with Lucas, he
thought he saw a trickle of rusty water coming down the hill from the
mine shaft. The mine had always been dry, so Linc naturally wondered
where the rusty water was coming from. He walked on up to the adit and
saw that instead of caving in the whole shaft, there was only rocks
and debris that fell down from the hill above the shaft. He tossed
all the rocks he could clear out and got a shovel from the truck and
cleared the door of dirt so he could open it. He opened the door and
found a puddle of rusty water just inside. Took the shovel, and put in
the water to make sure there was still ground under the water and not
a hole that had opened up..
Ok.. He went in and reached up and took the gas lantern off the shelf
and lit it. The trickle of rusty water was running down the floor of
the tunnel. As Linc went in farther, he could see a very faint blue
light. Oh, oh! He thought. What now, the light grew brighter as he
walked deeper into the tunnel. Oh no! Not this time with out any kind
of equipment with me. He turned and went back to the truck and got
his belt and back pack and put them on.. Back in the mine, he set the
lamp down and stepped through the portal.

Linc emerged into what looked like a bramble patch. He wondered just
where in the world he was now. Sun was about mid sky and it was hot
weather where ever he was. Something grabbed at his leg and tried to
bite him. He looked down and saw a cat clinging to his jeans, He
swatted at it, then saw it had a nest with four tiny kittens. Their
eyes not even open yet. He told the cat to scram, he wasn't going to
touch the kittens.

Linc could hear sound of a battle or something like that. What had he
gotten himself into now?

All at once he heard a gruff voice call, "Halt! Who goes there" Oh
hell Linc thought. He called back, "Lincoln Hanks".
"Step forward and be recognized" the voice said. Linc stepped out of
the brush and into a dirt lane. A Man in a blue civil war uniform
came out from behind an old shed.
Well now Linc new he was back in the civil war area. Just where and
when he didn't know yet.
Soldier said, "where is your uniform"? "I'm a civilian." Linc replied,
" Then what the hell are you doing here. You don't sound like you
are from around here."? Questioned the soldier. "No", said Linc
" I see you have on a pack, are you a medic" The soldier asked. " No,
but I will do what I can" Linc replied. " Get over here out of the
open or you might get shot.
Another Hanks huh? Old John Hanks over there with the wagon claims he
is a cousin of Abe Lincoln. Are you a cousin too? Jeered the soldier.
"It's possible" sad Linc.
Linc remembered his history. Abe had a cousin that split rails with
him. The cousin went on to be a teamster in the civil war. Well this
must be the cousin then.
They must be back a ways from the front line , as the roar of battle
is not as loud.
Linc had to stop for a bit and think. He tried to remember his
seventh grade history class, and what went on in the Civil War at
Atlanta. At best, this was what he could recall how the war went at
this point in time.

At the Battle of Jonsboro Union General William T. Sherman hoped to
destroy the Army of Tennessee and seize Atlanta, Georgia. By late
August 1864,the situation of the Confederate Army of Tennessee in
Atlanta had become extremely grim. Its new commander, General John
Bell Hood, had counterattacked the superior forces of red-bearded Maj.
Gen. William T. "Cump" Sherman's forces in their positions north,
east, and west of Atlanta with no success. Each loss added to the list
of Confederate casualties that numbered in the thousands. Sherman had
devised an effective plan of cutting the railroads into Atlanta, and
the last order of business was to sever the Macon & Western Railroad.
For long months Union and Confederate forces in northern Georgia had
ground away at each other, leaving the landscape on the
Chattanooga-Atlanta corridor dotted with the graves of fallen Johnny
Rebs and Billy Yanks. Sherman, who had replaced General Ulysses S.
Grant on March 18, 1864, as the commander of the Military Division of
the Mississippi, had departed Chattanooga and crossed into Georgia in
May 1864 with his three Union armies.

Sherman was acutely aware that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln needed a
decisive Union victory to increase his chances for reelection in
November. As commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi,
Sherman had 100,000 men under his command. Although Sherman had
substantially more men than Johnston had in the Confederate Army of
Tennessee, the Confederates had strong fortifications surrounding
Atlanta. A headlong attack against those fortifications was sure to be
bloody, and it was by no means certain of victory.

Linc shook his head, then walked on over to where John Hanks stood by
his team. He held out his hand and said, " Lincoln Hanks here. The
guard tells me you are John Hanks, cousin to Abe Lincoln".
Astonished, John held out his own hand and said, " That's me. Are you
a cousin of mine too?. I don't recall any Lincoln Hanks in the next
of kin". "Just distant cousins" Linc replied as he shook John's
hand. "I'm from out west. What can I do to help you?" Linc asked. "
Well right now I'm waiting for the command to move these supplies up
to the front. They just took up a couple of cannons to rout the rebs
out of the train station and capture the train cars loaded with
supplies. Been a whole lot of shooting going on but the rebs are
holed up in those buildings by the Train depot." Just then the
sargent came galloping back and yelled, " All right Hanks, get those
supplies up there pronto." Then galloped back to where he came from.
While John un-tethered the horses, Linc took the back pack off,
swung up into the wagon seat and laid it by he feet. John climbed up
beside him and they raced on down the road. They stopped by the
cannons and the men unloaded the supplies. Linc climbed off the wagon
to help when a shot hit the wagon just above where he had been
sitting. Linc reached in the wagon seat and grabbed the pistol from
his pack, took aim and shot two quick shots and got a reb that was on
top of the train depot. Then another now that he had their range.
That's two rebs to his credit. Wagon unloaded, and five wounded men
loaded in, Linc climbed aboard and just as they started to move out,
John got shot in the arm and almost dropped the reins. Linc grabbed
them and wheeled the wagon out of range as fast as he could.
Back at the rear line infirmary, the help unloaded the wounded.
Linc took a look at the bullet wound on John's arm. Looked to be a
clean shot through the forearm just nicking the bone. He pulled the
first aid kit from the pack and cleaned and disinfected it the best he
could. Just as he was about to bandage it, the medic came and looked
at it. Said the bone might be broken He put a bandage on it but
said he had no casting material to immobilize it with. Linc told him
he would take care of that and grabbed up a couple of small slats he
found. He put them along John's arm and wrapped it with duct tape.
"Wow" said the medic. "What is that stuff?". "Stuff we use out
west. Good for a lot of things." said Linc. " Darn, I'm going to have
to get some of that". he said. Linc gave him the rest of the roll,
saying, " Keep this, it's going to be too hard for you to get some
now."
With John's arm in a sling, the commander told him to take a load of
fresh troops and escort the mess wagon back to the front line.

It was getting quite late by the time they got back up front. After a
lot of cannon shells being shot, things had quieted down a whole lot.
Fresh troops replaced the tired and dirty ones so they might grab a
bite to eat. It was dark by the time they got back to the rear guard
with the tired troops and the rear guard got a bite as well. Linc was
tired too. The troops lay down and tried to rest as best they could.


That night the troops slept on their arms, and were startled during
the night by what appeared to be terrific artillery firing in the
direction of Atlanta….
About this time Linc heard a terrible roar, at first he could not
imagine what it was but after a time he ascertained that it was shells
exploding. What he heard was the explosion of rail cars loaded with
ammunition being destroyed to prevent their contents from falling into
enemy hands.
Linc could see for a long distance by the light of the shells and the
burning cars. The sound became deafening, and the fragments of shells
hurtled through the midnight darkness over his head with an ominous
rushing sound.
Then he remembered more of his history.


They learned next day that the noise proceeded from the explosion of
ammunition, the rear guard of the enemy having destroyed his abandoned
ordnance stores as his army retreated from the city.
On the morning of September 2, the Union Army looked out on the wreck
of a defeated enemy, who had retreated during the night, leaving his
dead unburied and his wounded uncared for. Union and Confederate
soldiers alike heard deafening explosions inside Confederate lines.
What they heard was the death knell of the western Confederacy.
With no need to hold Atlanta, Sherman destroyed the city. On November
15 Sherman led his 62,000 men on devastating march of destruction to
Savannah, arriving on December 10. Meanwhile, Thomas and Schofield
successfully defended middle Tennessee against Hood. Schofield
defeated Hood at Franklin on November 30, and Thomas won a decisive
victory over Hood at Nashville in mid-December. At that point, the
once great Confederate Army of Tennessee ceased to exist as an
effective field army.
The war ground on for another seven months but, after the Battle of
Jonesboro and the fall of Atlanta, there was no question that the
North would prevail, and little doubt that Lincoln would win the 1864
presidential election.

This was certainly an experience for Linc. He could see that the time
masters didn't lose their powers here, and he had found a distant
cousin here in the middle of a war. With this in mind, he thought it
was time to go home.
Linc said good by to John and told him he was going to leave as he had
things to do. He crossed over the lane, into the brambles, then back
through the portal.