The sun was blazing overhead, and the horses and the men were waiting in the woods. They could see the Union cannons across the open field near the peach orchard.
The men were staking out a Confederate line along Seminary Ridge. It was July 2, 1863, the second day at Gettysburg.
Among the Confederates was Company F of the 21st Mississippi Regiment, the Tallahatchie Rifles, and among them was an 18-year-old buck private named John Thomas Neeley. He was my great-great-great-uncle, whose last name I carry as my first, and to whom I am connected down the daisy chain of history.