The Battle of Gettysburg: Invaders in Our Town-The Battle of Gettysburg Through the Eyes of Some Who Lived It

Many, many books study the events and the strategies of this crucial battle, and do it well, while few touch on the human element of this tragic event, particularly those who were forced to endure the horror right outside their front doors. INVADERS IN OUR TOWN:THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG THROUGH THE EYES OF SOME WHO LIVED IT does just that.

This book is built around actual people who lived in Gettysburg, and who experienced the horrors of this battle. It is told through two different sets of characters, the primary characters and the secondary characters. The primary characters:

John Charles Will, Virginia (Ginnie) Wade, Tillie Pierce, Fannie Buehler, John L. Burns, Barbara Burns, Martha Gilbert, Elizabeth Butler, Samuel Butler, Elizabeth Salome (Sallie) Myers, Annie (Culp) Myers, Reverend Joseph Sherfy, John Wentz, Sallie Broadhead, Joseph Broadhead, and Professor Michael Jacobs.

The secondary characters, who compliment the primary characters:

Charles Will, Mary Wade, Samuel Wade, Daniel Skelly, James Pierce, Elizabeth and Jacob Gilbert, Francis Ogden, John Rose, John L. Tate, Mary Broadhead, and Henry Jacobs.

It also includes several soldiers, who were from Gettysburg, primarily John Wesley Culp, who enlisted in the Confederate Army and fought with the 2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment, part of the Stonewall Brigade; and Johnston (Jack) Hastings Skelly, Jr., who mustered into the 2nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Culp and Skelly were boyhood friends and shared many of the same friends while growing up in Gettysburg. Their exploits during the time covered by this book were intertwined.

I came up with an angle that is different than almost all of the hundreds of books written about the battle. It is written about the real people who had to endure the ordeal while they stayed to protect their homes. I did some extensive research and I discovered some extraordinary people who lived in Gettysburg at the time of the battle. And, what they did before and during the battle, I made into a book I feel is pretty entertaining.

I have introduced several fictional characters to assist in the telling of this story. It should be understood that any similarities of these fictional characters to any real person is purely by coincidence.

The story is mainly told by the words and expressions of these characters. This is made possible by the imagination of the author, strengthened by the author’s research into each of them from the vast amount of information available concerning the battle and the people who lived it.

Many of the buildings and residences referenced in this book are well preserved. These places are available for viewing if the reader plans a visit to Gettysburg in the near, or distant, future.