William Meehan

Fife William Meehan

Just shy of his fourteenth birthday, young Fife leaves home after the passing of his mother to enlist in the Union Army. With dreams of glory and visions of capturing old Robert E. Lee himself and leading him by the bayonet to President Lincoln, Fife lies about his age to take musket and join the men of the 137th NYSV. As soldiers seek relief from the boredom of camp life, Fife finds himself at the head of a grand snowball fight and a momentous baseball match-but visions of glory take a drastic turn as Fife is soon thrust into the horrors of battle at Antietam and Chancellorsville. But it will be upon a patch of ground on a small hill overlooking a town called Gettysburg where the volunteers of the 137th will hold the balance of a terrible battle in their hands. Facing overwhelming odds as Rebel forces swarm to take the hill in which Fife and the 137th must hold at all costs, young Fife will come face-to-face with the harsh realities of America's Civil War. "The airing of the issues that led to the war are remarkably balanced and accurate, which seems pretty rare in Civil War literature of any kind. The ending is really first-rate" John Perry, author of Mrs. Robert E. Lee: The Lady of Arlington.