My trip back to the future

I was sitting behind my desk the other evening doing some detailed research on the American Civil War.
Suddenly, I felt a dizzy sensation, a chill ran down my back and I must have dozed off or passed out for a few moments. When I recovered my senses, I was not sitting behind my desk, I was not in my warm comfortable room, I was sitting on a cold damp log in the middle of a frozen thicket of woods.
Instead of my big home computer I had a lap-top computer balanced precariously on my knees and it was no longer evening, the bright sun shining through the tree tops told me it was near high noon.
I was wearing blue jeans and my favorite T-shirt, the one with four of my Confederate heroes on it, but I still had my raggedy old moccasins on my feet, the comfortable ones I wear around the house.
"OK Gene," I told myself, "you're either dreaming or you've finally flipped your lid."
All of a sudden a squad of men charged from the blackjack thickets on my right and surrounded me. They were dressed in rag-tag Confederate uniforms and pointing antique .58 caliber black powder rifles at me. The leader, a grizzled old man wearing sergeant chevrons yelled, "Follow us you (blankety-blank) Yankee, and don't pull any shenanigans!"
It was then that I knew I had flown over the coo-coo's nest and landed in the loony bin. I guess I had been doing so much research on the Civil War, my mind had finally snapped and sent me there.
After walking for about two miles we broke into a clearing with hundreds of military tents, thousands of soldiers, squadrons of cavalry, and artillery lined up almost hub to hub. The overpowering stench of unwashed bodies, burned food, horse patoodie, and a miasma of other smells assaulted my nostrils.
I was turned over to a man in Confederate uniform wearing a star on his collar, a rank I identified as a Major. The Major asked me whom I was spying for. When I told him that I was from Mississippi and I was not spying but was from the future, he tossed me a grin and said, "Yeah, and I'm Julius Caesar."
There was a sudden yell behind me. The Sergeant had opened my lap-top computer and the screen display had frightened him. It had reverted to screen saver and a Star Wars pattern was running with star ships battling each other.
For what seemed like hours, but were mere minutes, the Major and squad of soldiers gaped open mouthed at the incredible futuristic battle scene. The astonished Major then turned to me and ordered me to pick up the lap-top and follow him.
We walked to a large tent near the center of the encampment. The Major disappeared inside but returned shortly followed by a regal General with a gray beard. It was my turn to gape with my mouth wide open.
Standing before me was none other than General Robert E. Lee, the greatest and most beloved general of all time. In person, my hero was much greater than any history book could possibly describe him.
For hours on end I demonstrated the vast store of knowledge that my lap-top computer could provide. How it went through time to collect the cyber-space signals I didn't care to think about, it just did.
We ended up with diagrams of 21st century weapons. Small arms like the M-16, the AK-47, the Uzi, the Sten Gun, M-60 machine gun, and others, plus modern artillery, special powder formulas, how to make electricity, internal combustion, a history of small arms, and finally a short history of the Civil War.
It was then that I passed out again and awoke sitting at my desk behind my computer. I quickly turned it off and made a pot of coffee to get the cobwebs out of my head. What a strange dream it had been.
I didn't think more on it until I got to work the next day. At first nothing appeared different. But, when I made my routine courthouse run, all the documents were marked with official CSA seals, the Confederate flag was flying on the flag pole, and CNN News was running a story about how the President of the USA and the 'black' President of the CSA had agreed to send a joint humanitarian expedition to wipe out starvation in Africa.
With the information and knowledge I had passed on to my hero, General Robert E. Lee, the Confederacy had won their independence.
I guess I had a lot of interesting new history to learn.