Soldiers

We all know about the famous generals and the major battles of the Civil War. But for the soldiers who actually fought, the war was all too real. It was especially traumatic for the thousands of soldiers who ranged in age from 10 to 15. Some young soldiers joined the fray to escape the boredom of farm work or to "set the South straight". Many of them kept diaries and wrote letters home.

This classic war novel is Stephen Crane's most famous work. It is considered by many critics to be the greatest war novel ever written. The setting is the civil war, and the hero (or anti-hero as it seems at first) is Henry Flemming, a young Northern boy who, swept up in the patriotic tide, joins the Union Army.

Gary Paulsen introduces readers to Charley Goddard in his latest novel, Soldier's Heart. Charley goes to war a boy, and returns a changed man, crippled by what he has seen. In this captivating tale Paulsen vividly shows readers the turmoil of war through one boy's eyes and one boy's heart, and gives a voice to all the anonymous young men who fought in the Civil War.