1. Tribulations of the Civil War By Lydia Morohunfola and Gracie Mesropian Published in 2016 by the Dank Hammy Association

2. Long ago America was divided into two sides, the Union and the Confederacy. Both sides fought for their beliefs over the topic of slavery. The union looked down upon slavery while the confederacy fought to keep their slaves. The two fought in a great war… The Civil War. This war tore about not only friends but families too.

3. This is the story of how my family was torn apart…

4. I once had a big and loving family living on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. I lived with my Ma, Pa, and my brother Jim bob. We lived happy simple lives. We didn’t have much money, unlike my family who lived South of us. They owned their own plantation and owned many slaves.

5. My family that lives South in Tennessee were vastly different then us. They believed in slavery something my family was not much of a big fan of, they valued their possession and hated Irish immigrates…they called them the “pope’s pons.” Mary Lou

6. However they weren’t all bad. My cousin Mary Lou was my best friend. During the summer we would always hang out at Kentucky Lake. We shared everything together… toys, clothes, and dreams.

7. Until one day in 1850 everything changed.

8. It all stated with Missouri. Pa told us about how farmer John heard about the tension building up in Missouri over the matter of slavery, they want it to be a slave state… which didn’t please the North.

9. He says that to please both the North and South they have agreed on a compromise that allowed California to be free and other states to vote if they want to be slave state or not.

10. Today at the market me and mama heard about how the election for president was going how the republican front runner Abraham Lincoln is winning. I heard that if he won many of the Southern would leave the Union.

11. Abraham Lincoln has won and tension has started to rise. In the beginning it was South Carolina and now almost a majority of the south has left. I have been trying to contact my cousin Mary Lou. She had told me that Tennessee has joined the confederacy and how her father wants her to stop talking to me because Kentucky is still apart of the union.

12. But she said she will try to keep in contact with me and will report on what is happening in the confederacy. We promised that one day we will get to see each other again and play together like we used to. If only that had been true…

13. I can not stop crying. My older brother has signed up for war. He will be leaving in just two days and the one person I want to talk to is not allowed to talk to me. I have heard that just like me Mary’s brother has signed up too. The sad part about this is they will both be fighting the same war; however they will be fighting against each other. That moment I knew that only one of them may come back home.

14. I wish my brother was still alive to read about President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation… I wish my brother was still alive to see and hear President Lincoln deliver his Gettysburg address… I wish he could have hung on for longer, Lincoln swept the nation with his speeches. The war is over and nothing is the same.

15. Mary Lou acts as if I am a stranger. She turns her cheek. She glances away as if I am invisible. War has damaged my family and ripped apart a beautiful friendship. The only thing I have left is the future of my country. It is hard to find light in a situation like this, but at least my country is liberated from the shackles of slavery.