Imperfect Union: A Father’s Search for His Son in the Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg - Hardcover

Much has been written about Civil War journalism-and not just by me-but too little about Civil War journalists. Chuck Raasch has helped fill that void with an exhaustively researched yarn that not only sheds new light on the operations and operatives of the 19th-century press, but also tugs at the heart with a story of gut-wrenching loss and inspiring faith. -- Harold Holzer, Jonathan F. Fanton Director, Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, Author of Lincoln and the Power of the Press (Winner, 2015 Lincoln Prize) This unique book tells the poignant story of Sam Wilkeson, a war correspondent who wrote one of the most eloquent reports of the battle of Gettysburg, and his son Bayard, an artillery commander who was killed in the battle. But Imperfect Union is a great deal more--an often poetic reflection on the meaning of war and peace, love and death, sacrifice and regeneration. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about Gettysburg, you will find something new here. -- James M. McPherson, Civil War historian and Pulitzer Prize-winner for "Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era" Chuck Raasch has written an important book, one that contains both an aerial and intimate view of the human cost of the greatest battle ever fought in North America. -- Ken Burns, director of the Emmy Award-winning documentary The Civil War The story of Sam Wilkeson and his son Bayard and what happened to them at Gettysburg stands as one of the most dramatic and compelling of the entire Civil War. And yet it is largely unknown. With exceptionally wide-ranging research, Chuck Raasch has performed a great service in restoring this heroic saga to modern-day students of the period. -- Matthew Pinsker, Pohanka Chair in American Civil War History at Dickinson College and author of Lincoln's Sanctuary A memorable book which is all the more compelling because of the humanity he invests in the kind of young men who went to war through the ages. -- Muriel Dobbin, The Washington Times

On the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, Union artillery lieutenant Bayard Wilkeson fell while bravely spurring his men to action. His father, Sam, a New York Times correspondent, was already on his way to Gettysburg when he learned of his son's wounding but had to wait until the guns went silent before seeking out his son, who had died at the town's poorhouse. Sitting next to his dead boy, Sam Wilkeson then wrote one of the greatest battlefield dispatches in American history. This vivid exploration of one of Gettysburg's most famous stories--the story of a father and a son, the son's courage under fire, and the father's search for his son in the bloody aftermath of battle--reconstructs Bayard Wilkeson's wounding and death, which have been shrouded in myth and legend, and sheds light on Civil War-era journalism, battlefield medicine, and the "good death."