Napoleon Bonaparte Drown

Yes, Napoleon is a character in Nostalgia. Yes, he was my ancestor. An yes, that was his name. Go figure.

In Nostalgia, Napoleon is Jim’s cousin (in real life they were not related) The fictional Napoleon lives next door to Jim. His father, Isaac, is a veteran of the Mexican Wars and a raging alcoholic, unable to hold a job and angry at the world.

When Abraham Lincoln declares war on the South in April of 1861, Napoleon eagerly enlists, seeing another adventure on the horizon. He encourages Jim to enlist, too, but Jim hesitates, reluctant to leave his family and his growing medical practice. Eventually Jim will enlist in July of the following year.

In the next two years Napoleon will valiantly fight the Rebs, sometimes reveling in victory, other times swearing revenge after a brutal defeat. Maybe he should worry about death, but like most twenty-something young men he feels invincible and patriotic, as if only he can save his country from the enemy.

But something happens to Napoleon. The carnage and the brutality of war affect him more than he will admit. He starts having nightmares and anxiety attacks. He jumps at the smallest of noises. For more than two long years he tells no one. Then Gettysburg happens.

There Napoleon meets Reuben, a fellow soldier from a hometown not far from Napoleon’s. Although Napoleon has always taken care not to get too close to anyone, he thinks he and Reuben could be friends.

On the line of battle, Napoleon and Reuben fight side by side. Enemy artillery shells fly past and Napoleon is splattered in blood and brains: Reuben’s blood and brains. Napoleon has no choice but to keep fighting and when he returns to find his friend’s body, it’s gone. That night, Reuben returns, in Napoleon’s dreams.

When the 111th and the rest of the Union Army leave Gettysburg, Jim stays back to treat the men who are too ill or injured to be moved. One day Napoleon shows up. Plagued by nightmares and the very real image of his headless friend, Reuben, he has gone AWOL from his regiment and come to Jim for help. He can’t sleep, his heart won’t stop racing, he has delusions and he knows it but they still won’t stop. Jim recognizes the symptoms he’s seen too often in combat soldiers, and he puts Napoleon on sick leave, hoping a few days of rest will help.

Two weeks later, Jim sends Napoleon back to his regiment, assuring him that the nightmares will go away eventually and all will be well.

It will be the last time they see one another, until Jim gets a letter from Napoleon, enclosed with a note from Napoleon’s commander. The news is not good. Jim’s world has turned upside down and he will make a decision that may just end his career.