Imperfect Union: A Father's Search for His Son in the Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg

By: Chuck Raasch

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Synopsis: On the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, Union artillery lieutenant Bayard Wilkeson fell while bravely spurring his men to action. His father, Sam, a New York Times correspondent, was already on his way to Gettysburg when he learned of his son&’s wounding but had to wait until the guns went silent before seeking out his son, who had died at the town&’s poorhouse. Sitting next to his dead boy, Sam Wilkeson then wrote one of the greatest battlefield dispatches in American history. This vivid exploration of one of Gettysburg&’s most famous stories--the story of a father and a son, the son&’s courage under fire, and the father&’s search for his son in the bloody aftermath of battle--reconstructs Bayard Wilkeson&’s wounding and death, which have been shrouded in myth and legend, and sheds light on Civil War–era journalism, battlefield medicine, and the &“good death.&”