April 30, 1863 was like any spring day in the Spotsylvania Wilderness for Emma Harris, who was struggling to survive alone in the wild tangle of trees and thickets of northern Virginia. She had expected life in the wilderness to be difficult, but she had not expected to be facing it alone. She and her husband John, had moved here five years earlier to begin their new life together as farmers.

Unfortunately, the poor soil of this small farm could not support the Harris’ subsistence lifestyle. This meant that John was forced to take a job a few miles away at Catherine Furnace, a twenty year old pig iron plant, nestled in the Shenandoah Valley. Life had been difficult for this twenty-two year old woman, who had already lost three infant children. Life became doubly hard when John had enlisted in the Confederate Army and had left home almost two years ago.

In her mind, Emma had daily conversations with John about her chores, her worries, and her loneliness. She ended every day with a prayer to the Lord to bring her husband home safely from this horrible war.

This particular morning, with a light rain falling, found her repairing the old chicken coupe when she heard a moaning sound from the woods. With her hand firmly around her hammer, she investigated. She found a man, about her age, covered with mud and blood. He was dressed in tattered Confederate grey and barely conscious.

It took all the strength in her 5’ 4” frame to drag this tall, lanky stranger into her small one room cabin. He was shivering and delirious as Emma struggled to remove his wet uniform.

“I have to get to the Bullock Road… I have to get to the Bullock Road,” he kept repeating.

“Hush now,” Emma tried to soothe and calm the wounded soldier.

“You don’t understand!” the man screamed with terror in his eyes and voice, “If I don’t get to the Bullock Road, all will be lost! All will be lost!”

“Everything will be all right, you need rest,” Emma prescribed, “What is your name?”

“What day is this,” he screamed as he grabbed Emma’s shoulder.

“It’s Thursday,” Emma informed him.

“No, no, no…” the man frantically screamed out, “What is the date?”

“It is April 30,” Emma tried to pacify him.

“What year?” he cried, “What is the year?”

“It is 1863, of course,” Emma said, starting to become alarmed at the stranger’s demeanor, “Please, you must calm down.”

“Thank God, I still have time,” the man said as he sank back into Emma’s bed.

“What is your name?” Emma repeated.

“Mathew,” he said as he started to pass out, “Mathew.”

Emma finished undressing the soldier and covered his naked body with the covers and blankets of the bed. She threw another piece of wood on the fire to warm the room even more and to speed the cooking of a stew she was preparing.

Taking the washbasin to the bed, she began to wash Mathew’s face and discovered the source of the blood. The soldier had a nasty scalp wound to the side of his head. He obviously had been shot and was lucky the bullet to his head had only grazed him. She dressed the wound.

She pulled down the covers and began to clean the dirt and blood from his body. She rolled him on his side and gently cleaned his back. Rolling him back, she slowly washed his chest using the softest towel she had, with the warm soapy water in the basin.

She stared at his genitals. She started to feel stirrings deep within her that she had not felt for a long, long time. Cautiously, Emma reached down and gently took Mathew’s soft penis in her soapy hands. She felt its weight and took notice how much larger it was than her husband’s cock.

As she washed the length of his organ, she felt it start to grow in her hands. Emma marveled at how quickly it grew and how hard it had become. As she rinsed it off and dried it, she continued to rub it. With her eyes closed, she imagined it was John’s hard cock in her hands. She felt desire mounting in her loins and imagined how good this cock would feel sliding deep inside her.

Emma felt Mathew’s hips rising to meet her caresses and that snapped her back to reality. She looked down and saw Mathew looking at her with a broad smile on his face. She quickly pulled her eyes and hands away from him.

Mathew grabbed her hands and placed them back on his erect cock, “Please, don’t stop. That makes me feel so good.”

Blushing, Emma continued to stroke his manhood, “I, I am married Mathew.”

“So am I,” Mathew offered, “But she is far, far away now.”

“It has been so long…” Emma sighed.

“What is your name?” asked Mathew, as his hips moved involuntarily to the rhythm of Emma’s masturbation of his cock.

“Emma,” she blushed and gave a girlish giggle.

“Thank you Emma for helping me today,” Mathew said, adding, “helping me in several different ways.”

He then reached up and slowly and gently began to unbutton Emma’s dress. He slid the dress off her shoulders and she stood, letting it fall to the rough wooden floor. Standing for a moment in only her chemise, Emma bent over and gently started kissing Mathew.

As Mathew’s tongue gently played with Emma’s, his hands reached under Emma’s chemise and softly explored her body. His hands, slowly and gently, glided along Emma’s soft silky skin. Sliding his attention from her back, to the sides of her breasts, until they gently cupped and kneaded her firm bossums. Emma responded to a touch she had not felt for years.

Mathew helped pull Emma’s chemise over her head, revealing her beautiful naked body to him. Her firm breasts and classic form belied the fact that this angel had ever given birth.

She climbed in bed with him, straddling his hips with her legs. Her long dark hair cascaded around his face and her breasts pressed firmly against his chest as she gave him a powerfully passionate kiss. Mathew felt her taught nipples pressing into his.

Emma sat up in bed, her tight ass resting on Mathew’s knees. She smiled as her eyes, the deep brown color of Tennessee pecan shells, met Mathew’s gun steel eyes. Holding the intense connection, Emma reached down and gently stroked and fondled Mathew’s erection, while he gently caressed her moist swollen lips.

“I am glad we can make each other feel good Mathew,” she purred. “I can’t believe how quickly you are recovering.”

“You are an excellent nurse,” he smiled and pulled her back down of top of him, easily sliding his tongue and his cock, deep inside the lonely frontier woman.

Their hips moved together in slow unification as desire and need filled their souls. As they stared into each other’s eyes, their speed increased until Mathew was pounding his cock into Emma, shaking her breasts wildly.

Sounds of heavy breathing, moans of ecstasy, and moist bodies slapping together filled the little cabin until at last Emma arched her back and physically shook. As the rapture and release of her orgasm rushed over her, she screamed out, “Oh my God! Oh yes! Yes!”

Emma’s orgasm released Mathew, as he pumped his climax deep inside Emma’s womb.

Out of breath and spent from their intense love making, the two collapsed in an intimate embrace. Fondling and cuddling, without a word spoken until Emma rose from bed and said, “I need to get you something to eat.”

Mathew watched from bed as Emma went about setting up the table and retrieved the steaming kettle of stew that had been bubbling away in the fireplace. He admired her natural beauty, as she went about her chore wearing only a small shawl over her shoulders.

As they sat together before the fire, sharing a blanket as they ate, Emma was full of questions.

“What happened to you?”

“I was on a mission for the 18th North Carolina regiment, on my way to the Bullock Road. I must have been shot by a Billy Yank sniper.”

“Have you ever run into a Private named John Harris in Lee’s Army of Virginia? He is my husband, I haven’t heard anything from him in months.”

“No Emma, I am sorry I haven’t. I believe they are close by Chancellorsville right now. I have to get to north of the Plank Road, where it crosses the Bullock Road by Saturday afternoon.”

“Well, you won’t be able to do anything unless you get some sleep.”

As she put the bed in order and helped Mathew in, she changed the dressing on his wound. She marveled at how quickly it was healing.

Mathew quickly fell asleep, but before Emma joined him in bed, she straightened up the room and set Mathew’s things by the door. Going through his pockets, preparing to wash his clothes in the morning, she found two things: a strange silver coin and an odd pair of glasses.

She tried on the glasses and stumbled a bit. The room suddenly, was bright as day. She looked out the small window into the night and everything outside was bathed in daylight!

Emma quickly set his things aside and joined Mathew in bed for the night.

******

The next morning, Mathew found Emma hanging up the wash on the line outside the cabin. It was cloudy and a bit foggy, but at least the rain had stopped. Emma gave Mathew some of her husband’s clothes, but John’s night shirt was the only thing that fit.

“Emma, did you find anything in my coat pocket before you washed the clothes?” Mathew inquired.

“What exactly are these Mathew?” she said as she handed him the coin and the glasses.

“The coin is a good luck token, given to me by my father. The glasses are just reading glasses,” Mathew explained.

“Mathew, I tried them on last night. I could see in the dark.” Emma looked him right in the eyes and said, “What are these?”

“Emma, they are part of my mission. This is top secret. Please trust me,” the soldier explained.

“I do Mathew,” surrendered Emma, as she kissed him. Hand in hand, they headed back to the cabin for breakfast.

When Emma changed the bandage, the wound was virtually healed. Mathew said he had always been a “quick healer.” He quickly changed the subject and spent the day helping Emma doing work around the farm that she had been unable to do by herself.

That night, after dinner, Mathew quietly explained that he would have to leave first thing in the morning. Emma understood.

In the dim light of the cabin, Emma put on the glasses and watched Mathew undress. It seemed he was standing before her in the full light of day and she marveled how magnificent his cock looked hanging between his legs.

“My God,” she sighed, “I will miss that.”

Mathew looked up and now could barely see she was wearing his glasses. Smiling, he walked over to her and put the glasses on himself saying, “Okay Emma, now it is my turn.”

He watched her take off her dress and chemise. She stood naked in front of him. She slowly parted her legs and ran her hand through her pubic hair, caressing her mound as he watched. Even in this light, she could see his powerful erection on display as he sat on the bed watching.

She could feel the wetness build as she ran her fingers along her labia. She eased a finger inside her and raised it to her mouth, letting Mathew watch her as she tasted herself.

Mathew walked over to the table and placed the glasses there, as he took her hand and led her back to the bed. He had her sit on the side of the bed and he knelt before her, as he spread her legs open.

His hands ran slowly along her smooth inner thighs until his thumbs started massaging her swollen lips. After a few minutes, he used his thumbs to gently part Emma’s sex and teased his way with kisses up her inner thighs to his prize.

With long slow laps of his tongue, he licked the length of the perineum to the vagina and slowly expanded his range to cover her ass all the way to her clitoris. Always maintaining his pace of long slow laps with his tongue.

At last, he inserted his tongue inside her and used his thumb to tease her clit. Her juices poured across his cheeks and down his chin. Using this added moisture, Mathew slowly inserted his finger up her ass and together with his tongue, fucked both of Emma’s holes.

He felt her start to spasm as she cried out, squeezing his head between her thighs. She collapsed back into bed as Mathew mounted her, sliding his manhood deep inside Emma’s pussy.

Pounding furiously into her, Mathew felt it coming. Emma screamed out again in orgasmic delight as Mathew pumped his cum deep into her body.

They collapsed together on the bed, laying naked, in their post-coital bliss. After a few minutes Emma began to quietly sob.

“I will miss you.”

******

Early the next morning, Mathew dressed in his uniform and quietly slipped out the door leaving Emma sound asleep. He made his way through the thickets to the spot he had hidden his Sharps rifle and a pistol a few minutes before he had passed out.

With his weapons in hand, Mathew picked his way through the thick under brush of the wilderness. He continued to avoid any roads or even animal trails.

By early afternoon, the rumble of artillery and musket fire grew ever louder as the young soldier approached the battle lines. As he came upon the Old Mountain Road, he hid himself and waited. A few minutes later he heard the snapping of twigs, signaling the approach of someone coming up behind him. He waited and jumped up, pistol at the ready.

“Emma, my Lord woman,” Mathew roared, “have you lost your senses? What are you doing?”

“Mathew,” she cried out, as she jumped into his arms, “I had to see you one more time. I have to know what is going on.”

“There is a battle going on, that’s what is going on you little fool!” Mathew angrily replied. Mathew held her back at arms length and said, “There are troops from both sides scattered all through these thickets. It is not safe for you.”

“You must tell me! Those glasses, your ability to heal so quickly, something isn’t right,” Emma argued.

“Emma, you are right. I promise, I will explain everything later tonight. It will be dark in a few hours and you can’t stay here!” he was devising an impromptu plan as he spoke. “Do you know the Chandler Plantation at Guinea Station?”

“Yes,” she spoke in a trembling voice.

“Go there right now. Keep in the thickets for five miles and then you’ll be safe on the roads. Fairfield Plantation is a safe place, today it will stay behind the lines. Go, go now!” he screamed, “I will join you there after midnight.”

Mathew watched Emma disappear into the growth and waited to make sure she was gone.

The fighting grew more intense all around him as he made his way to just north of the Plank Road where it crossed the Bullock Road and he waited.

As dusk fell, General Lane and the 18th North Carolina Brigade took their positions just below him, along the road. As night fell, the fighting had nearly stopped except for an occasional shot being fired here and there.

Mathew waited.

His glasses now gave him an excellent view of the intersecting Old Mountain Road. His hand reached into his belt, retrieving the Colt Navy Revolver.

Mathew’s target now came into view. The target was accompanied by a small reconnaissance party looking over the positioning of Hooker’s Army of the Potomac.

Mathew kept his eyes on the officer, Thomas Jonathan Jackson.

General “Stonewall” Jackson signaled to his men and turned at a gallop back to his lines in total darkness.

Mathew fired the Colt and screamed, “Yankees! Yankees coming!”

Lifting the Sharps rifle to his shoulder, Mathew fired. He saw the bullet strike Jackson in the left shoulder. By the time he could fire again, Jackson’s horse had bolted and was running through the thickets in panic. Just as he fired again, Jackson was struck in the head by a branch and nearly knocked off his horse. This caused the second shot to strike the General again in the left shoulder.

As a terrible volley of shots were let loose against the “yankees” by the North Carolinians, Mathew watched aides pull Jackson to safety and out of the line of fire.

In the confusion, Mathew made his way to Guinea Station.

******

Mathew watched the Jackson entourage arrive at the Chandler Plantation and carry the General into surgery. The massive wounds to his left shoulder, forced the amputation of his arm. The General was gravely wounded and doctors' called to bring his wife to his bedside.

Searching the plantation now for Emma, Mathew discovered her in the makeshift field hospital that had been established there for the wounded of the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Emma had been enlisted into service as a nurse, caring for the wounded of the victorious Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. As he made his way across the crowded floor, he heard Emma scream out, “John!”

He watched, as nurses lifted a wounded man with one leg, on to a makeshift bed. Emma rushed to his side, as he smiled and gently rubbed her cheek, as she knelt next to his bed.

Mathew turned away and walked out of the building into the night.

Approaching the woods, the soldier pulled the silver coin from his pocket and disappeared.

Author’s Note: Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s brilliant military strategy won the Battle of Chancellorsville for General Lee. Hearing of Jackson’s wounds, Lee said, “He has lost his left arm, I fear I have lost my right.” One week later, “Stonewall” Jackson died of complications from the wounds he received during the night of May 2, 1863. Officially, the wounds were received from friendly fire. In two months, without Jackson by his side, Lee would be defeated at Gettysburg and the South’s fate was sealed.