Angel of Mercy
Keywords: Mercy, of, Angel,
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When back at our companies encampment, I was questioned by the doctors as to who had cleaned my wounds. Telling me that whoever did it, saved my life, and did an excellent job of bandaging me. When I told them of the plantation, the servants and the young woman, they said they wanted to meet her, that they could use some extra help if she were willing. A wagon was brought over, I was loaded into it, we rode with a small escort of soldiers in the direction of what I thought was the plantation.
I was so confused, I couldn't understand how I'd gotten back on the battlefield like that. We found an old path cut through some trees, we followed it on for several miles, we came into a clearing, there was the plantation. Only, the house seemed dirtier, darker, than I'd remembered. We went into the house, it was abandoned, and from the looks of the cob webs and trash, the place had been vacant for a long time. The doctor, and other soldiers thought we'd found a different plantation, but as we were leaving, I looked over the mantel a painting of a young woman hung there. When the dust was wiped away, I saw my Angel of mercy, dressed in the same clothes she'd worn when she doctored me. "That's her, that's the woman that fixed me up." I exclaimed. Everyone came up with the explanation that the occupants of the plantation fled when they heard the battle getting closer, that the house was in this condition when I was here, but didn't know it due to my wounds.
As we were leaving, one of the soldiers saw someone in the brush, thinking it were the enemy, they soon had the person captured. It was an old black man, half blind, I showed him the painting, "Where's this girl, where's the mistress of the house?" I asked. Raising an eyebrow, he looked at me, then the others, "You'se pokin' fun at me ain't ya." he said. When asked what he meant, he replied. "This here plantation has been abandoned since the first of the war, the men fold went off to fight, the old woman died shortly after, and that girl, well, one night a group of them blue coats came through her looking for supplies. They told all her servants they was free, they hung the young mistress out back, saying she was a slave owner."
A tears had formed in the old man's eyes, he looked at us and said, "The young mistress had given us all our freedom after her mother died, we all stayed to take care of her, cuz we had no place else to go. She didn't even try to fight when they took her out back, she just smiled her sweet smile like always, then they hung her."
Everyone looked at me, I looked at the bandages, "This is impossible old man, she bandaged me up, she fed me food, she..."
The look in the old man's good eye told me he was telling the truth. My Angel of mercy was in fact, an Angel, as we rode back to camp, the doctor said he was changing his report to show that a field medic had bandaged my wounds, and I was helped in by a fellow soldier. I looked at the picture, and knew, that this Angel was real, and that one day, I'd find her again.
Was she my soulmate? I don't know, I know she saved me, I know she gave me comfort and relief when I needed it most. I hope to one day find her, even if its just to say thank you. But until then, Angel of mercy where ever you are, Thank you.
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Keywords: Mercy, of, Angel,