Photo of Retreat From Gettysburg jacket cover.

Retreat from Gettysburg

Kathleen Ernst

Arthur Tofte Award
Best Juvenile Novel by a Wisconsin Author


Young Chigger O'Malley is glad when the battered Rebel Army is trapped by floodwaters while retreating from the battlefield at Gettysburg. His father and three older brothers have all been killed while serving in the famed Irish Brigade, and Chigger hopes the Union Army will attack and end the war. But when he and his mother are forced to care for a wounded Rebel officer, the questions of right and wrong -- of friend and enemy -- become much more difficult to answer.
"Excellent…the choice of an Irish family near Williamsport at the tail end of the Gettysburg Campaign offers a refreshingly different perspective of the war and its impact upon common people."

--D. Scott Hartwig, Historian, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

"Well-known author Kathleen Ernst proves once again her careful research and accurate writing....  How Chigger handles his transition to manhood makes fascinating reading." 

--Hutton Book Review Services

"The main character--and the reader--learn about inner strength and self-discovery...(an) engaging story."

-- Parenting Today's Teen Book Review

"The research and attention to detail are exemplary; the author has masterfully combined factual events with a powerful plot.  ...An excellent example of how to teach history through fiction." 

--School Library Journal
"Ernst realistically shows us the sorrow, hatred, agony and confusion that the War Between the States caused not only to the soldier in battle, but to those who remained behind."

--Book Page

"Meticulous attention to history is the strong point of this first-person narrative... characters are distinctly drawn."

--Booklist

"A wonderful tale...Kathleen Ernst should be very proud of Retreat from Gettysburg.  Teachers will find the book extremely useful for further study about the events, as well as a heart-warming, intense look at how youngers and widows might have dealt with losing their fathers and husbands in the Civil War."

--Civil War Book Review

"Ernst has created a richly detailed historical story that illustrates the horrors that war visits on both combatants and civilians."

--Children's Literature

"Although told through the eyes of Chigger O'Malley, 14, "Retreat from Gettysburg" is not 'written down' to young readers; it will hold the interest of adults who like historical novels....It's an interesting and surprising story."

--William Wineke, Wisconsin State Journal

"Kathleen Ernst brings here-and-now realism both to a teen-age boy's emotional confusions and to that riverbank town's mix of military tension and civilian want.  ...Ernst is establishing a proprietary claim to the Civil War in western Maryland."

--James H. Bready, The Baltimore Sun

This hardcover book contains period photographs and illustrations, an author's note explaining fact from fiction, and a resource list teachers will find helpful.  For a preview of Retreat from Gettysburg, click HERE.

Retreat from Gettysburg is published by White Mane Press and is available now from your local bookstore and these online sources. 


Booksense.com


Barnes & Noble.com


Amazon.com


This page 2001-2005 Copyright by Kathleen A. Ernst of The Distaff Side. All rights reserved.

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