An Equal and Opposite Reaction

An Equal and Opposite Reaction


The creek was wide but not so deep, Daniel took a seep of the fresh water which he called “fallen mountain air” and with that his eyes glimmering from the sun, an eagle flew long and far above, he twisted his musket rifle on his shoulder as if to let the eagle know that he could hunt her down. But beware that Daniel was crossing this creek to get to his confederate regiment where he was to join the infantry and assist in the rebellion against the Union Army.

Sure he had to hunt as was needed for the days to come before his arrival at the camp, but he only had 59 shots and had been told to arrive with no less than forty bollies; the general consensus was that it took 100 fired shots to average one dead Union soldier, so Daniel had in him for half a man perhaps. And so it was that he limited his prey to easy catch, as were the rodents that bothered his sleep, or within reach unlucky squirrels. The eagle was as safe as ever, Daniel finished his creek crossing and took off his shoes because unfortunately he had no boots to take off, and then his pants and hang them out to dry, as he made camp for yet another night.

He sprung a fire, and scratched his head trying to deny the lice a peaceful reign. He had cleaned his rifle, with a bore brush, adding oil here and there, and passing a dry cloth through all its frame, noting, perhaps for the first time that this was his highest priced possession. He used his bayonet to dig a whole where he would hide his coins for the night. And then sat waiting for the rodent whose turn it was to feed the civil war.

Daniel’s patience was less of an achievement than you might imagine, he was a hunter gatherer back home, a small hut, where he used to live with just him and his brother Samuel; the boys, as the town folk called them were mostly loners, hunters by trade, they brought their goods to town, and drank at the local tavern, but mostly stayed away, until one day Lincoln and Davis split a pea. Samuel was an ebullient fellow and he did not need much a calling, he went to fight the war though not sure why and yet he went happy to oblige the need for human fodder. Then one day came back the news that he died of some disease before even firing his musket.

Daniel felt the call then and immediately accepted to join the infantry in Biloxi Mississippi. And that is what brought him through this trail, where he crossed Devil River and prepared to arrest a rodent from his life. A squirrel happened by, Daniel was as still as the tree or twice as much perhaps, and yet the squirrel did take notice, though the experienced hunter did not make eye contact, but the squirrel noticed that Daniel had not been there the day before, that he was an addition but he seemed immobile enough, and in such days it was possible to imagine that the squirrel had not seen a human, and so perhaps concluded that this bulky thing could not move as fast as a squirrel aware that its well being depended purely on speed to hole.

And so Daniel begun to move like a cat, slowly, slowly raising his rifle, slowly, and even slowly taking aim, the squirrel of course was ever moving here and there and fast and quickly but any kin observer would make out that she kept on covering the same four square feet perimeter, and so Daniel steady within that perimeter, homed in on an imaginary target, and just as if the whole hunt had been staged, the squirrel chose to pause, and worst yet then stand on just its hind legs, and that was when Daniel’s hunter’s intuition had been taught to pull the trigger, and sure shot the squirrel was too late a startled.

Daniel was not impressed by his shot nor happy to have a squirrel, it wasn’t his favorite meat, he preferred rabbit but those were really hard to catch and even more difficult to shoot. He walked over and then he made eye contact, the squirrel was still alive, he took his bayonet and cut the eye stare out.

After his meal, he took his gun and began to clean it again, he wasn’t one of those many amateurish soldiers that did not understand the benefits of cleaning his gun, he was religious about it, almost obsessive and as he cleaned it, he thought of the battles to come. There were plenty of dead notices back home and plenty of maimed men to tell the stories of the war, the ladies left behind also shared blemished horrors, and so he had much to go on, except perhaps patriotism.

He wandered about the politics of the war, but he only had an oral history, Lincoln wanted to liberate the slaves, he wanted to destroy the southern economy and to destroy its independence, but what did all that mean really, the life and times had a history of war, ah nothing to it, naught for him to change all that, why he suspected he didn’t know much but for the superficial tales, Davis must know better, a learned man like that was trustworthy if only for all he knew, and he was on this side and not up north somewhere.

He took out his sack of minies and counted ball by ball to 58. All accounted for, this was reassuring, a man had to know what he had on hand, over and over to remind himself of position, soon there would be the battle, where at less than 100 yards he would have to shoot a man and many, aiming as they say, above the knees somewhere as to kill them.

He took one minie and reviewed it, cone shaped this thing would blast out through 100 yards and reach a man, he thought, “how smart the man that idea all this and all that science.” He had heard from a fellow in the tavern that it all had to do with some law of “equal and opposite reaction”, and then he thought, “how does that apply to me and the squirrel or to brother Samuel?” But that was quickly followed by “to much though makes a man dumb.” And with that he put himself to sleep, a barely blanket covering his sleep. The fired died out on its own accord.

Morning came but that is not what woke him, early in the dawn noises from splashing in the river drove him to investigate, and he was marveling in amazement, a bunch of fish were making quite a ruckus, and many almost arm in length and very reachable, he thought about them as a hunter should, but then reminded himself he didn’t like how them things smelled.

And so he packed his pouched, and kept his course for yet another day, long walking and another, till he was only half a day’s walk from his regiment, and then he paused to eat another squirrel and clean his rifle, while at it he decided to test himself for battle, he recounted minies and pull three to the side, leaving only 55. Then told him self, “A good rifleman should be able to fire three times in one minute.” Though he did not own a watch he began his practice.

With the butt of the rifle between his feet, he took a paper cartridge cut it with his teeth and poured the powder in the barrel then pushed a ramming rod to guide the ball into its nesting place. And once there with percussion cap in place he was ready to fire. He looked around him, picked a branch at less than fifty feet and cocked and did it in. He then breathed deep, imagined the man that that might be, and then felt the fright that comes with needing to reload before more enemy comes near, and so he repeated his loading action and readied to fire, further still, picked another branch more than 80 yards, and took his aim and fired yet again to hit his target just the same. And then he reminded himself, there is more than one enemy solider after me, there are more than two there are many Union men that want me dead, and while telling himself all that he loaded yet again, rapidly ramming minie into place, percussion cap on, cocked the rifle, picked a target, the eagle did dare to appear out of nowhere at less than 80 yards, and fire did erupt, spent powder here and feathers there.

Daniel caught himself in the act, he paused still looking as if aiming, and then he stood up and walked the eighty yards, which must have taken a long time, as he was stunt. He made eye contact with the eagle, he removed the bayonet from his rifle and went to finish the kill, but then he couldn’t, the animal was suffering but not far from death as the wound reveled in appearance and profusely bled, and yet Daniel could not advance the death, he was whispering with tremoring lips, “equal and opposite reaction” he dropped the bayonet and went his way far from his regiment and folk.

His town folk heard only rumors, perhaps a traitor, perhaps he got killed on his way to his regiment, he lived long on and that’s the legend.

RC