Soldier's+Heart



Summary: In 1861, when the Civil War began, Charley Goddard enlisted in the First Minnesota Volunteers. He was 15. He didn't rightly know what a "shooting war" meant, or what he was fighting for. But he knew he didn't want to miss out on a great adventure.

The "shooting war" meant the horror of combat, and the wild luck of survival. It meant knowing how it feels to cross a field toward the enemy, waiting for fire. Waiting for death.

When he entered the service he was only a boy. When he came back he was only 19, but he was a man said to have "soldier's heart."

Battle by battle, Gary Paulsen shows us one boy's 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.