Tillie Pierce pt. 2: Escape to a Safe House

Sorry this was so long in coming, ya'll. I spent last night kneeling at the porcelain alter, and all day laying around being pitiful and bemoaning the fact I couldn't go to Deanna Rose and play baseball with the Hegners. *Sigh* So here I am with part 2 of Tillie's story.

July 1: As the sounds of the battle increase and the fighting nears her home, Tillie joins a neighbor as she and her children flee to her father's (Jacob Weikert's) house three miles south of town near Round Top.

"At last we reached Mr. Weikert's house and were gladly welcomed to their home. It was not long after our arrival, until Union artillery came hurrying by. It was indeed a thrilling sight. How the men impelled their horses! How the officers urged their men as they all flew past towards the sound of battle! Now the road is getting all cut up; they take to the fields, and all is anxious, eager, hurry! Shouting, lashing the horses, cheering the men, they all rush madly on.
"Suddenly we behold an explosion; it is that of a cassion. We see a man thrown high in the air and come down in a wheat field near by. He is picked up and carried into the house. As they pass by I see that his eyes are blown out and his whole person seems to be one black mass. The first words I hear him say are 'Oh dear! I forgot to read my Bible to-day! What will my poor wife and children say.'
"I saw the soldiers carry him up stairs; they laid him upon a bed and wrapped him in cotton. How I pitied that poor man! How terribly the scenes of war were being irresistably portrayed before my vision."

To be continued...