The Face of Heaven by Murray Pura

Author:Murray Pura [Pura, Murray]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Amish & Mennonite, Christian, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 0736949496
Google: ZhPCqCbo7y8C
Amazon: B008G5FMMW
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Published: 2012-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Early in the afternoon she and Morganne watched in silence while a Rebel sergeant crisscrossed the ground in front of the stone wall, canteens dangling from his body, eventually giving hundreds of injured Union soldiers water. No Northern soldier targeted him. Both armies faced each other, guns leveled, a few hundred yards separating them, as his gray form moved from one blue-uniformed soldier to another. It went on for hours as he handed out blankets and coats as well. Then Burnside asked for a truce so that he could bring the wounded down from Marye’s Heights. Lee granted the truce and the nurses joined the stretcher bearers as they climbed the slopes to reach the thousands of Union casualties. The two nurses treated as many as they could before the men were carried off the ridge.

Lyndel briefly came near a Rebel sergeant who was standing by the wall watching her. She knew who he must be from all the canteens still slung from his body. Approaching him she extended her hand. Surprised, he took it and held it a few seconds and then removed his hat.

“May I have the pleasure of your name, sir?” she asked.

“Kirkland, ma’am. Richard Kirkland. From Flat Rock in South Carolina. Kershaw County.”

“Sergeant Kirkland, I am Miss Lyndel Keim from Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, in Pennsylvania. God bless you for what you have done today. The water you brought to the wounded saved scores of lives.”

He looked away. “I had to do it.”

“But they are your enemy.”

His eyes returned to her. “We’re in a fight all right. But I don’t think of them as such.”

“Nor do I think of you as such. Thank you again, Richard Kirkland. I will remember you. I will pray for you. You are a man close to God’s heart.”

He smiled. “I am grateful for your words, Miss.”

Lyndel returned to bandaging the wounded and stanching blood flow with tourniquets. Soon Hiram was working alongside Morganne, his good Philadelphia suit and shirt stained with blood and dirt. Lyndel asked about the 19th Indiana. They were stationed on the army’s left flank, he told her. No, he hadn’t seen Nathaniel or Levi but the regiment had never seen action. If Burnside decided to renew the assaults that would probably change.

They worked into the night. Lyndel found the constant activity prevented the winter cold from getting into her bones. A sudden display of the aurora borealis sent white whirls and silver streaks across the sky. She often paused to look up at them as they twisted and turned and shone onto the battlefield.

“I’d say it’s likely most of those Southern boys have never seen them,” Hiram told her and Morganne. “Even this is pretty far south for a display. They’ll probably think it’s a sign from heaven to honor their victory.”

Lyndel wiped loose hair from her eyes as she stared at the loops and spirals of white against black. “We call them Northern Lights in Pennsylvania. They could just as easily be taken as a sign by the Union not to despair, that in the end Northern forces will overcome.

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