When the Smoke Cleared at Gettysburg: The Tragic Aftermath of the Bloodiest Battle of the Civil War

Currier and Ives might well have selected this prosperous small town for a romanticized lithograph. Gettysburg prospered as a hub of trade for the multiple highway spokes and railway tracks connecting in all directions. By that second sultry summer of the Civil War, this Pennsylvania hamlet would import 172,000 armed men and export 51,000 casualties, minus arms, minus legs, minus life itself. The tale of those first 3 days of July, 1863, has oft been told in print and celluloid. But what of the everyday townsfolks? As the battle raged and the spectacle that is war moved on, how did the some 3000 residents cope with the terror, the dead and dying left in the fields, indeed, in their very homes? And what traumatic memories did a child carry from that day and on into the next century? What must it have been like to be attending class in the morning, only to be in the middle of a pitched battle down the main streets by the afternoon? Twenty year old Ginny Wade prepares a meal while worrying about her fiancé on a distant battle front, only to have a bullet pass through the door behind her, making her the only direct civilian casualty. A girl steps out on her porch to warn Union soldiers that they will be shot by Confederate snipers at the corner. Bullets fly in her direction as she jumps back inside but continues to shout her warnings. Public buildings, churches and private homes in town fill with the dead and dying. Gettysburg becomes a rebel held town. Citizens lend aide and food voluntarily or at the point of a gun. In a macabre twist of fate, the local cemetery on a hill just south of town, becomes the very focus of the conflict and later the whole nation as a president with a stove-pipe hat delivers words long remembered. George Sheldon's book reads much like a diary you or I might have written if such an event happened in our neighborhood. The mental diagrams of the ebb and flow of battle I have in my head were soon supplanted by the minute by minute experience of dodging stray bullets while slipping on the living room floor made slick by the blood of the wounded. My recommendation would be to have a map of Gettysburg at hand while reading this book. Google Earth on a screen before me was invaluable. Streets, intersections, and buildings are referred to often in this work. Following a person along a street and around the corner as she breathlessly describes the action, or a boy quickly climbing back down a tree on a ridge to avoid the first shots of the war is made very vivid. And of course, Google Earth has those little photos you can click on at many locations mentioned. How a small town community dealt with having the Civil War brought into its very homes brings the war experience right to home. This reviewer, Dr. Charles Dusenbury is the Kindle-published author of COMPUTER BRAIN and MOLASBA. MOLASBA COMPUTER BRAIN

Anyone who wants to know how people ACTUALLY REACTED in a time of horrible stress and its tragic aftermath owes it to themselves to read "When the Smoke Cleared at Gettysburg." The author did an amazing job of putting together this fascinating historical treatise using material from diverse sources including newspapers, photographs, diaries, firsthand accounts, personal memoirs, letters and more. An enormous undertaking, Sheldon coordinated his research into a coherent whole that clearly shows the importance of Gettysburg to the Civil War and the lives it directly impacted. Which was all of us, of course. But the greatest thing about this book is that you don't need to be a Civil War scholar to appreciate it. Just a human being.

Travel back into the past and become a member of a community that found themselves in the right place at the wrong time. Feel the fears they felt as they found themselves at the center of the most decisive battle of the Civil War. Hear the horrifying sounds of carnage and death surrounding you. See the smoke clear and view the devastation that remains in your once peaceful and serene hamlet nestled in the rolling hills of south central Pennsylvania. Smell the stench that only the brutality of war can leave behind. Join George Sheldon as he masterfully takes you on a journey of memories. A journey that will give you more than a taste of what it was like to be in the right place at the wrong time. Are you up for the challenge?

This excellent history has a slant that no one else had thought of: exactly what happened some 140 years ago when a small town with limited resources suddenly had to cope with 51,000 casualties? Every borough manager and township supervisor in the country will want to read this book. Let's hope someone sends a copy to Tom Ridge.

I just happened to be walking through a bookstore when I saw the author, George Sheldon, talking about his book. I listened and heard him tell some stories about what happened after the Battle of Gettysburg, and I thought I would buy this book for my brother-in-law, a real Civil War buff. When I got home, I picked up the book and started to read it. I could not put it down! This is the first history book I ever read and it was terrific! The book doesn't go into boring stories about the armies; Sheldon tells great stories about the civilians and wounded. A little gruesome in places, the author really paints a vivid picture of what Gettysburg must have been like after the battle. I had him sign the book to my brother in law, now I am here to buy another one for me, and two more for my grandchildren. I just wish I would have bought them when he was in the store so they could all have been signed. I highly recommend this book - even if you are not a history buff - Sheldon will make you one - I can't wait to go to Gettysburg to see some of the many places he tells about in this terrific book!!!