Tillie Pierce

Tillie Pierce

Imagine you're a young woman living in an America far before
Internet connections. In fact television and radio are decades from
being invented. For months you've been terrified by rumors that an
rebel army will invade your town, killing and destroying and stealing
everything. Then one day at school you hear a commotion. Your worst
fears are coming true.
That was the plight of 15-year-old Tillie, real life heroine of
Tillie Pierce: Teen Witness To The Battle of Gettysburg. The
invading Rebels stole food, clothing, and animals including her
horse. A few days later the Union soldiers arrived and fighting
started. Tillie was sent to what should have been a safe haven with
another family, only to find herself in a make shift military hospital
in the midst of the conflict with no way of knowing if her family was
safe, her home still standing.
What makes the book really come alive are the excerpts in
Tillie's own words around which the Civil War narrative is built.
Whether she is describing piles of hastily amputated limbs or the
stench of dead, decaying horses, her words ring true a century and a
half after the event. A couple of examples should suffice:
"This caused the greatest alarm; and our hearts often throbbed with
fear and trembling. To many of us, such a visit meant destruction of
home, property, and perhaps life..."
"Nothing before in my experience had ever paralleled the sight [Beckie
and I] then and there beheld. There were the groaning and crying, the
struggling and dying, crowded side by side while attendants sought to
aid and relieve them as best as they could.
We were so overcome by the sad and awful spectacle that we hastened
back to the house weeping bitterly."
The realism is heightened by the many period photographs.
Although the book is written for a YA audience it has a very
adult adult message. War always has far too many young victims who,
if their lives are not snuffed out, have to grow up much too fast.
On a personal note, as we commemorate the Civil War a century and a
half later I have been learning a lot from Brian Swartz's in depth,
well researched stories about that time in history.
A great big shout out goes to Brian. He's also a great nature
photographer. Maybe a little too fond of doing restaurant reviews
though. Just want him around a long time.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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