Soldiers Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers

Charley’s regiment camps for three months as the weather grows colder and fall comes. Disease circulates quickly in the camp, and rumors spread that McClellan is afraid to fight. The men are physically sick, and morale is low. One rumor is that a whole regiment deserted, which turns out to be false; only four men deserted and were caught and shot. Another rumor, which turns out to be true, is that a young general named Grant defeated the Rebels in Tennessee.

Charley stays busy taking care of himself and his camp area. Men from cities get sick quickly because they don’t keep their camp clean. Food is scarce and unpredictable; sometimes bread is available or meals for purchase from nearby farmsteads, but otherwise the men must subsist on meager rations. Charley uses hard work—hauling wood, cleaning his rifle, and cooking—to persevere despite the cold and low morale. He stops taking interest in his fellow soldiers because he doesn’t want to get make friends when many will likely die. Several men think they will not fight in the cold weather, but Charley knows battle is inevitable because, “You did not have an army without a battle” (64).

One night when Charley is on guard duty, a Rebel soldier starts talking to him from across the river and proposes a trade: tobacco for coffee.