Three Days in Gettysburg: An Intimate Tale of Lost Love and Divided Hearts at the Battle That Defined America

TO COMMEMORATE THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, AN UNFORGETTABLE NEW STORY BY THE AUTHOR OF THE AWARD-WINNING “THE LIVING AND THE DEAD.” July 3, 1863. For three days, Union and Confederate troops had been brutally killing each other in the streets, fields, and forests of a small Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg. As the battle raged around her, a woman baked bread for Union soldiers, unaware of how she would soon become part of history. In a faraway hospital, the soldier she loved lay close to death, unable to get a message to her. And one native son hid out in the hills above town, having returned in Rebel gray to fight childhood friends. The true story of the braided lives of these three people—Jennie Wade, Jack Skelly, and Wes Culp—is told in vivid detail against the horrifying backdrop of the battle at Gettysburg, which took place 150 years ago. The three had grown up together, but by the time war came to their hometown, their lives had taken surprising paths. Despite whispered gossip about Jennie’s family and her violent, thieving father, she and Jack had fallen in love, and Jack had gone off to war with the Union army. Wes had left his family, moved to the South, and renounced his kinsmen by joining “Stonewall” Jackson’s brigade. When he finally came home, he did so as a traitor. From Iraq War veteran and journalist Brian Mockenhaupt, author of the award-winning Byliner Original “The Living and the Dead,” this moving and cinematically descriptive tale shows a personal and tragically fateful side of war. He takes us inside the homes of Gettysburg, where snipers lurked in attics, families cowered in cellars, and bullets flew through the house where Jennie baked her bread. And he guides us through the dusty streets, where panicked soldiers ran for cover and dead men and horses rotted under the hot July sun. Written with the clarity and empathy of a writer who understands war, this is an intimate story of the largest battle ever fought on American soil, in which 160,000 men descended on a town of 2,500 to kill each other. It is a brutal, heartbreaking tale, told through the experiences of the residents and hapless soldiers caught in the chaos. Mockenhaupt poignantly reminds us why Gettysburg is the one battle that deservedly remains engraved in all of our minds. PRAISE FOR "THREE DAYS IN GETTYSBURG" “‘Three Days in Gettysburg’ affirms that history is made vivid not through its events—however epic—but through the individuals consigned by fate and circumstance to confront and endure them. The result is a compelling, beautifully researched book that is as enlightening as it is moving.” —Elizabeth Kaye, author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Lifeboat No. 8” "‘Three Days in Gettysburg’ provides the reader with a taut and refreshing perspective on the 150th anniversary of this epic event. It tells the story of both the soldiers who fought and died there, and also of the non-combatants – the people of Gettysburg who endured the battle and its fetid aftermath…. A vivid picture of what it was like to experience the battle of Gettysburg." —ThinReads ABOUT THE AUTHOR Brian Mockenhaupt is the author of the Byliner Original “The Living and the Dead,” winner of the 2013 Michael Kelly Award and a finalist for the 2013 National Magazine Award in Feature Writing. He is a contributing editor at “Esquire,” “Outside,” and “Reader’s Digest” and is the nonfiction editor at the “Journal of Military Experience.” He served two tours in Iraq as an infantryman with the 10th Mountain Division. Since leaving the U.S.