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epilogue James located what remained of G company near Spotsylvania courthouse late in the day of May 13th he was warmly greeted and happy to be among familiar faces but sad to see so many fewer of them he learned then that the recent fighting had taken the lives of four of his comrades besides Willie Dodd and spirit sergeant Donohue Niles Rogers Lyman swim and Cornelius mayor another 12 had been wounded the only six had serious injuries lieutenant Tom's auto paracin Hudson Marsh Benjamin breed Pete McQuaid and James Wyatt James had little time to mourn the loss of his friends Confederate General Robert E Lee had control of the land around Spotsylvania and Union General General Ulysses s clan was determined to have it at any cost by the time James arrives Union forces had already spent several brutal days attacking strong rebel defensive positions but it failed to break through Lee's lines James and G Company were in the thick of it every day until May 3rd 23rd with James recording would happened in a brand new journal when they were finally given two weeks furlough free to do what he wanted James accompany Johnny to the Henderson farm in New York State we had a needed rest James wrote and I was able to meet many of Johnny's friends and relatives as well as Sara the young couples meeting went extremely well for both of them and on June 4th James and Sarah were Wed in the local Episcopal Church the celebration and barely ended when James and Johnny found themselves back in Virginia and in the middle of fighting once again G company would take part in several major battles before the end of the war including action at Cold Harbor Petersburg Cedar Creek and a pata Maddox courthouse when robert e lee finally surrendered his army on April 9th 1865 James's company had been reduced to just 20 men the rest either dead wounded or taken prisoner at the time he left the army James was 17 years old and had risen in rank to second lieutenant it was during these final months of fighting that a sketch artists from Frank Leslie's Illustrated newspaper Frances shale spotted James in his journal shel thought James's work showed great promise and suggested he send samples to his boss soon James began submitting sketches of soldiers in camp on the March and in battle several of which were reproduced in Leslie's he became a staff to artists for Leslie's at the close of the war and covered such important stories at the building of the Transcontinental Railroad the exploration and settlement of the West and the Indian Wars sorry Sara accompany James on these assignments and eventually wrote articles of her own Sara and James had one child Kate as for the veterans of G Company they met every year at the reunion of the 122nd New York volunteers were they exchanged recollections of the war and brought each other up-to-date on their lives Johnny Henderson did indeed marry the girl from the neighboring town and became a successful farmer but he was best remembered for spinning tall tales about the Civil War his favorite was about the time James charged ahead of everyone else and drove off several hundred Confederate soldiers single-handedly Osgood little professor Tracey went back to medical school and became a doctor with a successful practice in Albany New York while Washington Evans became a skilled carpenter and helped to construct some of the most beautiful mansions in Syracuse Charlie shell took his fiery no-nonsense personality West first as a foreman on the Union and Pacific Railroad work gangs and later as manager of a fur importing company in San Francisco but of all the personal stories the most intriguing was that of the notorious shy William kittler William was wounded in the leg by an exploding shell at Cold Harbor when he refused medical treatment for several days despite obvious pain infection set in followed by a high fever during which William became unconscious and was finally rushed to the surgeons it was there while having his uniform cut from his body that Williams secret was revealed William kittler was in fact a woman her real name was Gabry no sails and she had cut her hair short and joined the army in the same patriotic fervor that had gripped most of the men and boys she was discharged from the Army and shipped north to recover and no one from G Company ever heard from her again rumor had it however that a soldier looking remarkably like William kittler and limping noticeably had been spotted during the fighting at Appomattox as for Lieutenant Tom's he recovered from his wounds and returned to Li Jie company in January 1865 when the army laid siege to Petersburg Virginia he was repeatedly passed over for promotion during the rest of the war despite a clean record and many heroic acts after being severely wounded at Fisher's Hill Virginia he was discharged from the Army still with the rank of lieutenant he returned to his hometown and family where he took up his old position as schoolteacher James made several attempts to find out what had happened to Sally and her family but was never successful he did however receive a letter from a former volunteer for the Union Commission the civilian organization in st. Louis that helped relocate many refugees from the war while there were no records of where individuals had been sent the volunteer recalled that a number of former slaves had been given farmland in the Dakota Territory near the Canadian border letters to the area received no reply James returned to the United States briefly in 1910 to attend the 45th anniversary celebration at the end of the Civil War many of his comrades from G Company had passed on by then leaving just a handful to remember the men and boys who had fought to preserve the Union James died of a heart attack four years later while staying on Palawan Island in the Philippines Sara died ten years after James while on assignment for National Geographic in New Zealand almost a year after the death of her mother a steamer trunk was delivered to Kate pieces home in Montana inside were the personal effects of her parents at the bottom carefully wrapped in a hotel towel for her father Civil War journals the final entry in the second journal reads June 5th 1865 well the war is over and we have made it through alive Johnny and I will walk home tomorrow but today will be sent spent and saying goodbye to friends and having our last I hope army supper because Lieutenant Tom's is at home recovering I will take these journals with me and hold them till he decides to write his history of G Company I only hope that something I say here will be of use to him though I don't see how the words of a scared boy could interest him or anyone else very much at the end of this entry I believe I can truly say that now you have read it all stuck in the back of the journal was a small yellowing envelope with a tarnished silver coin inside on the envelope was written luck is measured by the friends you make and the people you love life in America 1863 historical note on April 12 1861 Confederate cannons under the command of general PGT Beauregard opened fire on federal forces at Fort Sumner with this act the Confederate States of America which would number 11 states from the south after the fall of Fort Sumner declared war on its northern counterpart part the war referred to as a revolution in the south and a rebellion in the north would last for bloody years and cost the lives of an estimated 600,000 soldiers at the heart of the Civil War was the issue of slavery and whether each state had the right to decide for itself if slavery would be permitted within its borders to white southerners slavery and control of its three million eight hundred sixty thousand black slaves was crucial both economically and culturally they insisted that their farming economy could not survive and prosper without the cheap labor provided by slaves besides they claimed blacks were inferior and needed to be watched over and cared for by their white masters most northern states had already banished slavery and were pressing for its abolition and the rest of the United States and in the two million square miles of land west of the Mississippi what southerners viewed abolition is arrogant and a direct threat to their traditions and way of life after decades of political wrangling court cases and compromises the issue came to a head with the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 Lincoln had declared himself firmly opposed to slavery and its introduction in the western territories but he was willing to let it exist and die a natural death in the states that already sanctioned it his position did not appease us especially since a majority the newly elected Congress was firmly anti-slavery it would not be long prosze the pro-slavery advocates warned before the new president and his Congress flexed their political muscles and place more and more restrictions on slavery they had to act quickly before it was too late and so on December 20th 1860 South Carolina passed an ordinance of secession proclaiming that the union previously existing between it and the other states was dissolved within week six other southern states adopted their own Ordinance of Secession this move took Lincoln and most northerners by complete surprise the bombardment of Fort Sumner three and a half months later sent them into action Lincoln put out an urgent call for 75,000 volunteers the first of many such calls to defend and maintain the Union meanwhile a second wave of secession strengthened the Confederacy and brought sides and newspaper ads proclaim the need for April Body soldiers men on both sides rushed to sign up would be soldiers crowded the recruitment centers in large cities were signed on with locally organized units emotions ran so high than enlistment code its were surpassed everywhere caught up in the fervor of the movement were voice from both the north and the south no one actually knows how many boys were able to join their sides army record-keeping what had existed at all was extremely sloppy at the time and enlistment procedures were so lacks that most boys who claim to be 18 which was the legal age of enlistment at the opening of the war were allowed to sign up unchallenged one study made by the u.s. War Department at the close of the 19th century estimated that of the two million 100,000 who served in the Union Army over 800,000 were 17 years old or younger of the 850,000 soldiers the Confederacy Confederacy sent into battle between 20 and 30 percent were underage why these boys were so eager to join buried a great deal of course many boys knew what issues were and willingly put their lives at risk for their beliefs but a surprising number had little notion or understanding of the political and social implications of the war they had simply been caught up in the war fever that swept the country and wanted to be part of what they thought would be a brief but glorious adventure others enlisted hoping army would be an exciting alternative to the routine of endless farm tours back home still others find signed on for no better reason that then because their friends had because they didn't want to appear cowardly or sympathetic to the enemy while their motives for enlisting differed these boys did have one thing in common they love to write almost every soldier sent letters home and a surprising number kept detailed journals of their experiences usually their writing styles were direct and simple and their spelling was often highly creative what is more they tended to focus on the everyday events of army life the bad coffee and lack of food the tedious daily routine the hours of marching and their actions in battle yet it is through this intense focus on details that they were able to bring this were so fully alive for us today after four years of Civil War after the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and a massive destruction of property the Union was indeed restored and the slaves were freed from their bondage gone too was the idea that any state or collection of states could decide to break free of the others that the federal government was subservient to the states in its place emerged a stronger central government one that would orchestrate the teeming and settling of the vast West become a major world power and play a larger and larger role in the lives of its citizens the Civil War also changed the boys who fought in it it robbed them of their childhoods forcing them to confront a hateful and violent adult word world but like the Union they fought for those who served came out stronger for their scars and wiser for their experiences the end if you enjoyed listening to this book please like it share it and subscribe to my channel so that others may enjoy this as well