Gallant Boys of Gettysburg Read Online Free PDF

too.”
    “Why, don’t worry, Lucy,” he said airily. “We’ll go up and whip the Yankees and then come back, and it’ll all be over.”
    But his light remarks obviously did not convince Lucy. She shook her head, and Jeff was astonished to see sudden tears in her eyes.
    “Please be careful,” she said. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
    Jeff stared at her, unable to speak for a moment.
    Then suddenly, to his shock and amazement, Lucy threw her arms around him and kissed him soundly, right on the lips!
    “There!” she said defiantly and then laughed. “I’m getting to be downright bold, aren’t I?”
    Jeff could still feel the pressure of her soft lips. He could not think of a single intelligent thing to say. “Ahhh—why, Lucy!” he exclaimed.
    But then she turned and fled, calling back, “Don’t forget me.” Jeff stood there dumbfounded. He had not known Lucy cared that much for him.
    “Well, now, it’s nice to have a sweetheart come and kiss you good-bye, ain’t it now?”
    An elbow struck Jeff in the side, and he turned to see Pete Simmons grinning at him.
    “I didn’t know you was such a ladies’ man, Jeff,” he said. “Who was that pretty little thing?”
    Jeff did not want to talk about Lucy to Pete Simmons, and he said, “Oh, just a friend.”
    “Looked like a pretty good friend to me.” Pete laughed. “When we get back here, you’ll have to introduce me to her.”
    At that moment the bugles sounded, and Jeff hurried back to his position. The company formed, and he began to rattle out with the drum, Charlie Bowers beside him, grinning. Then the army started to move, making a long, serpentine column as they curved through the streets of Richmond.
    Finally they were outside the city, and Jeff looked forward, still wondering what lay ahead of them up North. He remembered other young men who had started out like this and who had never returned, and now the thought of how uncertain life was came to him.

4
“God Is Always There”
    T he Confederate Army that moved out of Virginia, crossed the Potomac, and advanced into Pennsylvania shocked the Northern farmers. They had been accustomed to the neat blue uniforms, the spotless muskets, and other fine equipment of the Federal troops. When the Army of Northern Virginia passed into their territory, some of the militia men took one look at Jubal Early’s veterans and took to their heels at once.
    Gettysburg civilians never forgot their sight of the famed foot soldiers of Gen. Robert E. Lee. “Most of the men,” recalled one farmer, “were exceedingly dirty, some ragged, some without shoes, and some surrounded by skeletons of what had once been an entire hat.” However, he noted, they were all armed and under perfect discipline, adding, “They seemed to move like one vast machine.”
    On the other hand, Jeff was amazed at the wealth of the Pennsylvania towns his unit passed through. To eyes accustomed to the countryside of Virginia, stripped by the ravages of war, these rolling fields, huge farms, and prosperous towns seemed almost a miracle.
    “Looks like we could just move in here, doesn’t it, Tom?” he muttered as they marched into York and noted its prosperity.
    It was a rare scene—invading army and invaded population hobnobbing on the public green.Many Southern sympathizers were there. But some of them had gotten together a band that struck up “Yankee Doodle” as the Confederates marched into town.
    The general made a rattling speech, saying among other things, “My friends, how do you like our way of coming back into the Union? I hope you like it, for I have been in favor of it a long time. We’re not burning your houses or butchering your children. On the contrary, we are behaving ourselves like Christian gentlemen, which we are.”
    “Sounds like he’s running for office, don’t he?” Pete Simmons said to Jeff. “I guess politicians all sound the same, North or South.”
    They paused that night, rested, and