TILLIE PIERCE: TEEN EYEWITNESS TO THE
BATTLE OF GETTSYBURG
by Tanya Anderson
IMAGINE—YOU ARE FIFTEEN YEARS OLD LIVING A
NORMAL TEENAGERS LIFE WHEN YOU SUDDENLY FIND
YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BLOODIEST BATTLE TO
BE FOUGHT ON US SOIL. THIS BEGINS THE STORY OF
TILLIE PIERCE-A NORMAL TEENAGER WHO FOUND
HERSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE “BATTLE OF
GETTYSBURG.
Using Tillie’s own journal accounts that she wrote and published in 1889, the author recreates
what is was like during the long 3 days of battle. Tillie, along with her neighbor Hettie and her
children, flee from their home in the town of Gettysburg to Weikert Farm, which they thought
would be a safer location. However, this house was about to become a major field hospital to
over 700 Union and Confederate soldiers. It was here, near the area known as the Round Tops
that she watched and saw some of most savage fighting of the day. As she and the women at
the farm saw the horrors of war firsthand, they aided Union soldiers, cared for the wounded
and dying men, and worried about their families back in Gettysburg. The author uses Tillie’s
quotes about the anguish she felt in a smooth narrative that will help readers’ identity with
Tillie’s feelings and better understand the human cost of the war. The book is not heavy with
technical details of the battle. It is not a book about what happened on the battlefield. Rather,
it is a book about a real-life 15-year-old and the small Pennsylvania town where she lived that
would never be the same. The book has many sidebars providing interesting facts about the
Civil War. The book is liberally illustrated with photographs of the city and battle scenes, again
showing the horrors that Tillie saw.
There is a neat feature at the end of the book. Using the Google Earth apps, you can take a
step-by-step walk through modern Gettysburg where much about what Tillie saw and where
she lived still exists.
This author’s account will keep you glued to your seat in this incredible story.