Books with author Matilda "Tillie" Pierce Alleman

On June 30th, 1863, fifteen-year-old resident of Gettysburg, Tillie Pierce, saw Union General Buford and his cavalry pass through the town.For the next three days she would be a witness to one of the bloodiest battles on American soil.On the first day, while cannons boomed on Seminary Hill and Cemetery Hill, Tillie was taken away from the heart of Gettysburg to a small farm on Taneytown Road, thinking that she would be safer there, but this did not shield her from the realities of war.It was on this day that she had the horrific experience of seeing a dead soldier for the first time. She would see more in the coming days.As Tillie recounts her experiences of assisting doctors and nurses in tending to wounded soldiers to providing a small tin of water to General Meade, the reader is transported into the heart of the battle from the viewpoint of a young observer.As the veteran who provides the preface states, “The story is told with such marked faithfulness, such honesty of expression, such vividness of portrayal, that those who lived in, and passed through those scenes, or similar ones, will at once recognize the situations, and surroundings, as natural and real.”Written a number of years after the event, Tillie provides a day by day analysis of what she saw and heard during that time, before, during and after the battle.After the Civil War Tillie married a lawyer, Horace Alleman, and moved to Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. She recorded her account of Gettysburg in 1885. She died in Philadelphia in 1914.

On June 30th, 1863, fifteen-year-old resident of Gettysburg, Tillie Pierce, saw Union General Buford and his cavalry pass through the town. For the next three days she would be a witness to one of the bloodiest battles on American soil. On the first day, while cannons boomed on Seminary Hill and Cemetery Hill, Tillie was taken away from the heart of Gettysburg to a small farm on Taneytown Road, thinking that she would be safer there, but this did not shield her from the realities of war. It was on this day that she had the horrific experience of seeing a dead soldier for the first time. She would see more in the coming days. As Tillie recounts her experiences of assisting doctors and nurses in tending to wounded soldiers to providing a small tin of water to General Meade, the reader is transported into the heart of the battle from the viewpoint of a young observer. As the veteran who provides the preface states, “The story is told with such marked faithfulness, such honesty of expression, such vividness of portrayal, that those who lived in, and passed through those scenes, or similar ones, will at once recognize the situations, and surroundings, as natural and real.” Written a number of years after the event, Tillie provides a day by day analysis of what she saw and heard during that time, before, during and after the battle. After the Civil War Tillie married a lawyer, Horace Alleman, and moved to Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. She recorded her account of Gettysburg in 1885. She died in Philadelphia in 1914.

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Long considered one of the most vibrant and compelling accounts of the battle of Gettysburg by a young resident of the town. Fifteen year old Matilda "Tillie" Pierce saw Union general Buford enter town with his cavalry, saw the rout of the first day of fighting, and the Confederates streaming through the town. She gave water to many Union soldiers, including General George Gordon Meade, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac. She went on to help the nurses and surgeons care for wounded at a house down on Taneytown Road, sitting to comfort the dying General Stephen Weed. Tillie saw the mangled bodies of men and horses, and the incredible destruction of the fields and farms. A quarter-century later, Tillie, now married and a mother, sat down and penned this remarkable account for her family. Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever.

Matilda Alleman was a young resident of Gettysburg during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. At Gettysburg is an amazing first hand account of what she saw. Without question, the most famous battle of the American Civil War took place outside of the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which happened to be a transportation hub, serving as the center of a wheel with several roads leading out to other Pennsylvanian towns. From July 1-3, Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia tried everything in its power to decisively defeat George Meade’s Union Army of the Potomac, unleashing ferocious assaults that inflicted nearly 50,000 casualties in all. Day 1 of the battle would have been one of the 25 biggest battles of the Civil War itself, and it ended with a tactical Confederate victory. But over the next two days, Lee would try and fail to dislodge the Union army with attacks on both of its flanks during the second day and Pickett’s Charge on the third and final day. Meade’s stout defense held, barely, repulsing each attempted assault, handing the Union a desperately needed victory that ended up being one of the Civil War’s turning points. After the South had lost the war, the importance of Gettysburg as one of the “high tide” marks of the Confederacy became apparent to everyone, making the battle all the more important in the years after it had been fought. While former Confederate generals cast about for scapegoats, with various officers pointing fingers at Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and James Stuart, historians and avid Civil War fans became obsessed with studying and analyzing all the command decisions and army movements during the entire campaign. Despite the saturation of coverage, Americans refuse to grow tired of visiting the battlefield and reliving the biggest battle fought in North America.

Tillie Pierce was a 15-year-old girl when the battle erupted in her hometown of Gettysburg. Just before the battle began, Tillie was sent by her worried parents to what they thought was the safety of a farm outside of town: the Jacob Weikert farm, 3 or so miles down the Taneytown road, on the east side (or behind) the round tops. This was a relatively good place to be on the first day of battle. But on the second day (and, to a certain extent, the third), it was a terrible place. On the second day, with the battle rolling toward the Union left and centering in the wheat field, the peach orchard, and especially the round tops, the Weikert farm became a vast field hospital. Tillie saw her share of dead and wounded men--her description of the amputation benches and piles of severed limbs is hair-raising--and lived through the peril of sniper bullets and artillery shells. She gave a drink of spring water to a grateful General Meade and talked with General Stephen Weed, desperately wounded on Little Round Top, the night before he died. She tended wounded soldiers, fed hungry and exhausted ones, and in general saw and experienced more violence than any teenager ought to. Although written when she was in her 40s, Tillie's memoir captures the innocence and wide-eyed amazement of a teenager. Of the 80-some firsthand accounts of the battle written by inhabitants of Gettysburg, Tillie's ranks as a favorite. Historians have only begun to explore the impact of the Civil War on children, both the boy-soldiers who actually served in combat and the children left at home while dad went off to war or caught up in the total warfare into which the war sunk during its final two years. Tillie's memoir is a valuable resource in this new line of research.

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The experience of a little girl, during three days of a hard fought battle, as portrayed in this volume is certainly of rare occurrence, and very likely has never been realized before. Such a narrative as the following, is worthy of preservation among the pages of our nations literature. The story is told with such marked faithfulness, such honesty of expression, such vividness of portrayal, that those who lived in, and passed through those scenes, or similar ones, will at once recognize the situations, and surroundings, as natural and real. While perusing its pages, the veteran will again live in the days gone by; when he tramped the dusty march, joined in the terrible charge, or suffered in the army hospital.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text. Read books online for free at