My Brother's Keeper My America 1 (7 page)

I also think that children like me, who believe that all people are created equal, will keep this nation from perishing from the earth.

I might be bold to think that.

But that is truly what I think.

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Historical Note

The Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865. It is also called the "War Between the States," for the Northern and Southern states were at war with each other.

At the time of the Civil War there were many differences between the North and the South. The North had a more modern way of life. Many people lived in cities. Their economy was based on trade. The South had a rural way of life. They depended upon large plantations to grow sugar, cotton, and tobacco. Black slaves from Africa worked on these plantations.

101

Slaves work on a plantation in South Carolina in 1862.

The North had outlawed slavery. But Southerners thought their plantations couldn't exist without slaves. They wanted to make their own laws. So they decided to leave the "union" of the North and South. They formed the Confederate States of America. This led to the Civil War.

When the war had been going on for more than two years, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate army, led his men into Pennsylvania. He thought a victory in the North would be an important step to winning the war.

General Ri

J\

m

/ /.. .

m his famous horse, Traveler.

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General Lee did not know that huge numbers of Union soldiers were also heading into Pennsylvania.

On July 1, almost 165,000 soldiers clashed in battle in the small farming town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle lasted three days. It was the largest artillery battle ever fought on this continent.

Battle of Gettysburg

--

Charge of the Confederates on Cemetery Hill,Thursday Night, July 2,

1863.

103

A

young soldier who fought in the Civil War.

The Union army won the battle. But the armies of both the North and the South suffered terrible losses in America's bloodiest war: A total of over 50,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing.

The brave people of Gettysburg had no idea that they would ever find themselves in the midst of such a nightmare. When the battle was over, they were forced to bury all the dead and care for the wounded.

Union soldier Sergeant Amos Humiston

died in the war. This photo of his children

was found in his pocket.

104

More

than

3

,000 women worked as nurses during the Civil War.

Before the war, only men had been nurses. Here, a female nurse tends

to the wounded, including a Confederate soldier, at Gettysburg.

Sixteenth

President Abraham Lincoln.

The Battle of Gettysburg did not end the Civil War, which lasted another year and a half. But many historians see it as a turning point leading ultimately to the victory of the North. Fulfilling the dream of President Abraham Lincoln,

105

The people of the town of Gettysburg proceed to the dedication of the

National Soldiers' Cemetery where President Lincoln delivered his powerful

Gettysburg Address.

the United States became one nation again and slavery came to an end.

The most memorable speech ever made by an American president was Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given in November 1863 at the dedication of the National Soldiers' Cemetery.

Generation after generation of Americans has revered President Lincoln's simple but powerful words:

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"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-- we can not consecrate--we can not hallow-- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember

107

what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth."

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About the Author

Mary Pope Osborne says, "I'll never forget my trip to Gettysburg. Cemetery Hill seemed so strangely peaceful. Everything quiet, except for the wind in the grass and the

chur

of the crickets. It helped me understand how shocking the battle must have been to the people of that town."

Mary Pope Osborne is the award-winning author of more than forty books for children, among them the best-selling Magic Tree House series,

Adaline Falling Star,

and Dear America:

Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catharine Carey Logan.

She lives with her husband, Will, in New York City.

109

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank her editor, Amy Griffin, for her wonderful support. She would also like to thank Diane Garvey Nesin, Jean Feiwel, and the Gettysburg Visitor Center.

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following:

Cover portrait and frontispiece by Glenn Harrington.

Page 101 (top): Slaves on plantation in South Carolina, 1862 by

H.P. Moore, New-York Historical Society. Page 101 (bottom): General Robert E. Lee on his famous horse,

Traveler, Brown Brothers, Sterling, Pennsylvania. Page 102: Battle of Gettysburg, ibid.

Page 103 (top): A soldier in the Civil War, Library of Congress. Page 103 (bottom): The children of a Union soldier, The

J. Howard Wert Gettysburg Collection. Page 104 (top): A hospital in the Civil War, Atlanta History

Center. Page 104 (bottom): Abraham Lincoln, Brown Brothers, Sterling,

Pennsylvania. Page 105: People of Gettysburg proceeding to dedication of

National Soldiers' Cemetery, Library of Congress.

109

110

For Gail Hochman, with the deepest gratitude.

While the events described and some of the characters in this book

may be based on actual historical events and real people, Virginia

Dickens is a fictional character, created by the author, and her diary is a work of fiction.

Copyright © 2000 by Mary Pope Osborne

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.

SCHOLASTIC, MY AMERICA, and associated logos are trademarks

and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attn: Permissions Department, 555 Broadway, New York, New York 10012.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

ISBN 0-439-15307-7 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0/0 01 02 03 04 05

Photo research by Zoe Moffltt

Book design by Elizabeth B. Parisi

Printed in the U.S.A. 23

First edition, June 2000