This book depicts the true story of Frederick William Miller and John Armstrong Robison who served the Union in the 96th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. It follows the time they spent from training at Camp Fuller to being wounded at the battle of Chickamauga. Through their letters and memoirs the two men vividly described the everyday events of a soldier's life, the horrors of battle, the pain and suffering of being wounded, the journey from the battlefield to the hospitals in Nashville, the experience of amputation, and the effects of gangrene on both men. At the Battle of Chickamauga, the 96th, in the front line of Whitaker's Brigade, marched double quick to the aid of General George Thomas. John, as a member of the color guard, was in the very front of their Regiment. Granger's Reserves arrived at Snodgrass Hill just in the nick of time. The "Rock of Chickamauga" was nearly out of ammunition and in desperate need of reinforcements. Whitaker's green troops fought bravely that afternoon and by the end of the battle, no one doubted that they earned the name "Iron Brigade of Chickamauga." The story explodes when both are wounded. The novel, through John's memoirs, tells the story of how the Federal wounded soldiers of Chickamauga traveled from the battlefield in Georgia to the hospitals in Nashville, Tennessee. John told in his own words, the pain and suffering that he and others endured during the week they traveled, many on foot, to Nashville after the battle. Four days after walking over sixty miles to Bridgeport he wrote, "Finally the train was loaded and we started and oh, the jar of that old box car was so great, I had to sit squatted down on my toeslike, and then the pain was so great in my arm that the tears would run from my eyes." The novel also tells the fate of the slightly wounded. These soldiers stayed with their regiments for a week or more before they received proper treatment, which by then, for many was too late. Exemplary of the state of their medical care are Charles E. Belknap's remarks: "In the confusion of the retreat, primary operations could not be performed to the extent desired; thus, many cases of injuries of the knee and ankle joints subsequently proved fatal that might have been saved by timely amputations." Many of these soldiers, like Frederick, died. 213 pages, 8.5 X 11, soft cover, 17 B&W Photos, 40 Drawings, 1Maps, 11Other
Aunt Gert's Suitcase is a collection of short stories many based on the ones that Maria Catherine "Kate" Smith told to her cousin about her Rothermel relations who lived within Pennsylvania during 1730 to 1924.
It had barely been a week since Grandpa left his father's five-hundred acre farm to enlist into the army when his sister Florence wrote him on December 21, 1917 that, "You surely are needed at home now." She was right, as the eldest son, the entire family depended on him to help manage all aspects of their farm and they expressed their need of him over and over again in their many letters; he was sorely missed. When I first chose the above quote from one of my great grandfather's letters to be the title for my book, I thought that his urgent plea pertained only to our family. But as I researched, I was surprised to discover that this was the same predicament that many farmers were facing, not just in Savanna, but throughout Illinois and the country as a whole. I soon came to the realization that what his family and friends wrote in their letters to him was relevant to a larger audience than merely my relatives. Simply put, during World War I American farmers needed their sons home, not just my great grandfather.
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