Boys of Wartime: Will at the Battle of Gettysburg (18 page)

 

infantry:
Soldiers who fought and marched on foot.

 

Mason-Dixon Line:
The invisible line that established the boundaries between Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. It divided the North and the South, the free and the slave states. The line was named after the two men who surveyed the land in a border dispute.

 

muster in:
Join the military. Soldiers were said to “muster in” when they enrolled in the army.

 

parole:
Release a prisoner. The Rebels paroled their civilian prisoners when they left Gettysburg on June 27, 1863.

 

picket:
A soldier in front of the main fighting force who acted as a guard. Picket soldiers were the first to see enemy movements. They were also the targets of sharpshooters.

 

portico:
A porch with columns.

 

privy:
A bathroom in a small shed outside—an outhouse.

 

proclamation:
An official announcement.

 

Rebel:
A term people in the North used to describe the Southern soldiers.

 

scout:
A soldier sent out ahead of the main fighting force to gather information about the enemy.

 

secede:
Withdraw, or leave. The Southern states voted to secede from the Union.

 

sharpshooter:
A shooter who had very good aim over long distances. Sharpshooters took positions on hilltops and attics to shoot at the enemy.

 

skirmish:
A small battle or military action.

 

valise:
A suitcase.

FURTHER READING

 

At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle
by Tillie Pierce Alleman, published in 1888. Reprinted and distributed by Butternut and Blue and Stan Clark Military Books. Tillie Pierce's eyewitness account of the battle.

 

Fields of Fury: The American Civil War
by James McPherson, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2002. An excellent overview of the entire war.

 

Eyewitness: Civil War
by John Stanchack, published by Dorling Kindersley Books, 2000. A photo-filled guide to the sites, people, and artifacts of the Civil War.

 

Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent: How Daring Slaves and Free Blacks Spied for the Union During the Civil War
by Thomas B. Allen, published by National Geographic, 2006.

 

The Long Road to Gettysburg
by Jim Murphy, published by Clarion Books, 1992. Firsthand accounts by Confederate Lieutenant John Dooley, age eighteen, and Union soldier Thomas Galway, just fifteen.

 

When Johnny Went Marching: Young Americans Fight the Civil War
by G. Clifton Wisler, published by HarperCollins Publishers, 2001. The stories of forty-nine young people—soldiers and spies, drummers and buglers, boys and girls—who got caught up in the War Between the States.

Special thanks to Martha Levine and Chris Dubois for driving me around the battlefield and putting up with me while I prowled the streets of Gettysburg looking for Will's story.

I am immensely grateful to the people of Gettysburg. They not only lived through the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, but then took the time to put their experiences down on paper. This book would not have been possible without their stories. Nor would it have been possible without the generous people of present-day Gettysburg—the Adams County Historical Society, walking tour guides, museum docents, park rangers, and others—who helped me step back in time and shared their favorite stories with me.

Deepest thanks go to my first readers, Josanne LaValley, Kekla Magoon, Bethany Hegedus, and Constance Foland, and especially to Margaret Woollatt, who edited the manuscript with such a careful eye.