On November, 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln rose before the gathered crowd at the dedication of the new Gettysburg National Cemetery to deliver his immortal address. Lincoln praised the 4,000 "honored dead" there, who had given their lives that the nation might live. But who were these men individually who had made this ultimate sacrifice?
This new book seeks to resurrect the identities of the 2,000 of those Gettysburg dead, who were fortunate with having their names preserved for their gravestones.In capsulized biographies, author James A. Christian presents findings from his National Archives research, specifying details from these soldiers' lives, such as: their U.S. birthplaces or immigrant backgrounds; their residences and occupations before enlisting into the army; their enlistment dates and into which army units; their promotions, detachments, or absences due to Confederate capture or prior battlefield wounding; and most significantly, their ages at the time of their deaths at Gettysburg. The book particularly highlights minor enlistees who would be killed before reaching their eighteenth birthday. The book identifies one such boy soldier who was killed at only fourteen years of age.Other compelling stories highlighted in the book include the names of soldiers who fought and died under aliases and the names of the nine acknowledged Confederate soldiers mistakenly buried in this Union cemetery.
As a convenience to visitors to the Gettysburg cemetery, the soldiers' profiles within each book chapter are indexed by their row and space location within the state plots.
Over 300 footnotes are appended throughout the book, highlighting absorbing circumstances in the soldiers' lives and deaths.
Many of the capsulized biographies also present U.S. Pension Office information, specifying the names of claimant widows and their children, if any, along with the ages of these claimants at the time of the soldiers' deaths. Widows' certificate numbers are presented for 700 of these U.S. Pension Office files, facilitating further review on the subscription Fold3.com website.
At the end of each state's chapter, the book presents a technical illustration of a monument present today on the Gettysburg battlefield. These illustrations are captioned with commentary expounding upon the monuments' significance for the veterans who oversaw their erections some twenty years after the battle.
This book is a captivating overview for individuals interested in going beyond the heroic portrayals of the Battle of Gettysburg for the real human drama of the lives lost there.
