EXT. OUTSIDE THE ARMY HOSPITAL - MORNING

Robert, brooding, waits in the buggy.

Hearing a creaking, rumbling sound, Robert turns to see TWO BLACK ORDERLIES in grey uniforms wrangling a large top-heavy wheelbarrow, covered with filthy canvas. One orderly pushes while the other keeps the barrow from tipping over.

Robert notices, in the barrow's wake, a trail of blood. He gets out of the buggy and follows as the orderlies turn a corner of the building.

Behind the building, where the ground is bare, pitted with puddles of water, Robert watches as the orderlies reach the edge of a shallow pit. One orderly pulls the canvas back, revealing severed legs, arms, hands, rotten, burnt, shattered by bullet or bomb.

Robert watches as they toss the remains into the pit. Quicklime is shoveled atop the limbs.

Robert walks away, unsteady.

Around the corner, he fumbles through his pockets for rolling paper and tobacco. He locates these and tries to focus on rolling a cigarette, his hands shaking. He tries harder to control his hands, his feelings, but he can't. He has a panic attack, crying, hiccupy shallow breathing, face flushed. Frustrated, he throws down the cigarette and tries to hold back tears.

LINCOLN (O.C.) What's the matter, Bob?

Robert looks up, mortified, to see Lincoln watching him with concern. He wipes his eyes, his mouth.

           ROBERT

I have to do this! And I will do it and I don't need your permission to enlist.

           LINCOLN

That same speech has been made by how many sons to how many fathers since the war began? "I don't need your damn permission, you miserable old goat, I'm gonna enlist anyhow!" And what wouldn't those numberless fathers have given to be able to say to their sons - as I now say to mine - "I'm commander-in-chief, so in point of fact, without my permission, you ain't enlisting in nothing, nowhere, young man." 84.

           ROBERT

It's mama you're scared of, not me getting killed.

Lincoln slaps Robert in the face. It shocks them both.

Lincoln tries to embrace Robert, but Robert shoulders past him and walks back toward the front of he building. He turns.

           ROBERT (CONT'D)

I have to do this! And I will! Or I will feel ashamed of myself for the rest of my life. Whether or not you fought is what's gonna matter. And not just to other people, but to myself. I won't be you, pa. I can't do that. But I don't want to be nothing.

He hurries away.

           LINCOLN

We can't lose you.