Widow of Gettysburg (51 page)

The signs and symptoms of combat fatigue that Harrison Caldwell experienced were very real to war correspondents—and soldiers—of the day. I replaced Uriah Painter, the real reporter from the
Philadelphia Inquirer
who was on the scene, with Harrison, but Charles Carleton Coffin, Whitelaw Reid, and Sam Wilkeson were all real war correspondents. After the war, Coffin, who was a devout Christian and considered one of the best war correspondents of his time, went on to author fifteen books. Whitelaw Reid’s coverage of the Civil War prompted Horace Greely to make him managing editor of the
New York Tribune
in 1868. Eventually, he controlled the paper himself, and went on to serve as minister to France and ambassador to Great Britain.

Readers of
Wedded to War
will recognize Charlotte Waverly from the first book in the Heroines Behind the Lines series. The nurse Charlotte’s character was inspired by Georgeanne Woolsey, who did indeed nurse for three weeks at the Sanitary Commission Lodge at Gettysburg.

The text from the newspaper articles, General Lee’s General Orders No. 73, as well as the addresses by Edward Everett and Abraham Lincoln, are also verbatim.

It was considered crass and unladylike for women to write and publish, so many civilian accounts were not recorded for decades. Sarah Broadhead did print her diary from June 15–July 11, 1863, to help raise money at the Sanitary Commission Fair in Philadelphia in June 1864. Consulting the bibliography will show you when the other first-person narratives were recorded. Monuments have since been raised to honor Gettysburg civilian women Jenny Wade, the only civilian killed in battle, and Elizabeth Thorn, the pregnant gravedigger.

Primary source material, maps, photos, and other resources can be found at
www.heroinesbehindthelines.com
.

Alleman, Tillie Pierce.
At Gettysburg: Or, What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle.
New York: W. Lake Borland, 1889.

Aughinbaugh, Nellie.
Personal Experiences of a Young Girl during the Battle of Gettysburg.
Privately printed, circa 1926–1938. Adams County Historical Society, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Bearss, Edwin, and Anthony Waskie.
Philadelphia and the Civil War: Arsenal of the Union.
Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, 2011.

Bell, Malcolm Jr.
Major Butler’s Legacy: Five Generations of a Slave-holding Family.
Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 1987.

Bennett, Gerald R.
Days of “Uncertainty and Dread”: The Ordeal Endured by the Citizens at Gettysburg.
Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Foundation, 1994.

Broadhead, Sarah.
The Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Privately printed, 1864. Adams County Historical Society, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Buehler, Fannie.
Recollections of the Rebel Invasion and One Woman’s Experience during the Battle of Gettysburg.
Gettysburg: Star and Sentinel, 1896.

Coco, Gregory A.
A Strange and Blighted Land: Gettysburg: The Aftermath of a Battle.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Thomas Publications, 1995.

_____________. A Vast Sea of Misery: A History and Guide to the Union and Confederate Field Hospitals at Gettysburg, July 1–November 20, 1863.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Thomas Publications, 1988.

_____________. Waster Valor: The Confederate Dead at Gettysburg.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Thomas Publications, 1990.

Coffin, Charles Carleton.
Marching to Victory: The Second Half of the War of the Rebellion.
New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1888.

Conklin, Eileen F.
Women at Gettysburg 1863.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Thomas Publications, 1993.

Cooper, Samuel.
The Practice of Surgery.
London: A and R Spottiswoode, 1820.

Creighton, Margaret S.
The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg’s Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War’s Defining Battle.
New York: Perseus Books Group, 2005.

Dreese, Michael A.
The Hospital on Seminary Ridge at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2002.

Duncan, Russell, ed.
Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.
Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 1992.

Foote, Shelby.
Stars in Their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign.
New York: Random House, 1994.

Griffis, William Elliot.
Charles Carleton Coffin: War Correspondent, Traveller, Author, and Statesman.
Boston: Estes and Lauriat, 1898.

Hoisington, Daniel J.
Gettysburg and the Christian Commission.
Roseville, Minnesota: Edinborough Press, 2002.

Holmes, James.
Dr. Bullie’s Notes: Reminiscences of Early Georgia and of Philadelphia and New Haven in the 1800s.
Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing Company, 1976.

Jones, Bernie D.
Fathers of Conscience: Mixed-Race Inheritance in the Antebellum South.
Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2009.

Kemble, Frances Anne.
Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation 1838–1839.
New York: Harper Brothers Publishers, 1863.

Koontz, Hilda C., ed.
A Sanctuary for the Wounded: The Civil War Hospital at Christ Lutheran Church, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2009.

Letterman, Jonathan.
Medical Recollections of the Army of the Potomac.
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1866.

Perry, James M.
A Bohemian Brigade: The Civil War Correspondents.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000.

Sheldon, George.
When the Smoke Cleared at Gettysburg: The Tragic Aftermath of the Bloodiest Battle of the Civil War.
Nashville: Cumberland House, 2003.

Taylor, Frank H.
Philadelphia in the Civil War 1861–1865.
Philadelphia: Dunlap Printing Company, 1913.

Woolsey, Georgeanna.
Three Weeks at Gettysburg.
New York: Anson D. F. Randolph, 1863.

1. In June 1863, before the governor’s official call to arms, the people of Gettysburg didn’t take threats of invasion seriously. When has there been a time in your own life when you did not, for whatever reason, heed warning signs of danger? Has there ever been a time when your own community (local or broader) ignored red flags of impending disaster?
   
2. Bella made a choice to protect her daughter by keeping her heritage a secret, a deception that lasted twenty years. Do you believe there are ever good reasons to deceive someone else? If so, what would those be?
   
3. Abraham Jamison and the rest of the 54th Massachusetts regiment decided to fight for free rather than take unequal pay, causing great hardships for their families who depended on income. When have you had to take a stand on principle that required personal sacrifice, or sacrifice on the part of your family?
   
4. For a time, both Liberty and Amelia cloaked themselves in grief until it eclipsed their individual identities. Has loss ever threatened to define you? What did you do about it?
   
5. Bella valued Liberty’s protection above all else, which is something all parents can relate to. How do we know when to let our children experience danger?
   
6. Liberty’s guilt over her response to Levi’s wounds haunted her for two years. How does one break free of guilt?
   
7. One of the verses that helped Liberty move on was Philippians 3:13–14. In the NIV, the verses read: “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” What do those verses mean to you?
   
8. What Bible verses have helped pull you through a difficult time?
   
9. During the course of the book, Liberty’s hatred for Rebels transformed into compassion for wounded men, no matter where they hailed from. When and how has your perspective on an enemy changed?
   
10. Dr. Stephens used opium to deaden his senses to emotional pain, even though he knew it harmed his body. How do people do this in our culture today? Other than drugs, what else do we do when we want to numb our own heartaches?
    
11. At one point in the story, Silas asked Dr. O’Leary if he believed people could really change. How would you have answered him? What evidence of change have you seen in people’s lives? What caused it?
    
12. Silas was held captive by the idea that God would not listen to him because of wrongs he committed in the past, or for neglecting to do what he knew was right. Do you believe there is anything that God cannot forgive?
    
13. One of the greatest heartaches at Gettysburg was all the unidentified bodies buried in unmarked locations. This was especially grievous for Southern family members who hated the fact that their
    soldiers were buried on what was then “foreign soil.” What would you do if you did not have a gravesite for a loved one and could not recover his or her remains? How would that affect your grief?
    
14. Liberty, Silas, and Bella all felt categorized at some points in the novel. When have you felt like you were lumped in with a group and not given value as an individual?
    
15. Liberty’s change of heart toward Southern wounded earned her disdain from others. When have your loyalties or perspectives shifted, causing surprise or disapproval from those in your life?
    
16. At one point, Dr. Stephens tells Liberty, “You don’t know what you can do until you are required to do it.” When has this proven to be true in your own life?
    
17. Amelia finally found solace from her grief by being able to comfort others who walked in the valley she had trod. When have you been able to use your life experiences to guide or comfort others?
    
18. Liberty had no choice when her farm was taken for a hospital, but no one forced her to pitch her tent at Camp Letterman and fill her days with more nursing. Why did she do that? Do we do the same thing to avoid painful realities in our own lives?
    
19. Some Gettysburg citizens became ill from pollution they were not aware of, such as corpses contaminating their drinking water. How do our spirits become polluted without us recognizing it? What are the warning signs, and how do we recover from that?
    
20. At the end of the book, Harrison Caldwell urged Bella and Liberty to write their own stories of their experiences during and after the battle. Why is it important to record our personal histories, even if it may not be significant on a national scale? How can writing be a form of therapy?