At Gettysburg

Or, What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle

By: Matilda "Tillie" Pierce Alleman

Narrated by: Brian V. Hunt, Claire Dayton

Long considered one of the most vibrant and compelling accounts of the battle of Gettysburg by a young resident of the town. Fifteen-year-old Matilda "Tillie" Pierce saw Union general Buford enter town with his cavalry, saw the rout of the first day of fighting, and the Confederates streaming through the town. She gave water to many Union soldiers, including General George Gordon Meade, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac.

She went on to help the nurses and surgeons care for wounded at a house down on Taneytown Road, sitting to comfort the dying General Stephen Weed. Tillie saw the mangled bodies of men and horses, and the incredible destruction of the fields and farms.

A quarter-century later, Tillie, now married and a mother, sat down and penned this remarkable account for her family.

Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever.

For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an audiobook.

Public Domain (P)2017 Big Byte Books

Running out of Superlatives...

Disclaimer: I don't work for, have a relative that works for or have ever met anyone associated with Big Byte Books.
Warning: If they ever go public don't get in my way to buy stock. You'll get run over :)
These folks are finding and bringing to life priceless diaries and presenting them with heartfelt sincerity. I feel like my I'm hearing Grandma or Grandpa letting me in on closely held memories and family secrets from a time long ago.

Tillies perspective

Excellent History. What she saw and what others saw and did is Heroic and honest

Recollections of a Muddy Little Girl

This is a charming book worth the price. It was written by Alleman after she was grown and had children. The reader/listener still hears the little girl's "voice" in the re-telling. It is full of Victorian sentiment but not enough to get in the way of the story. She was present when two great armies converged on her town from out of nowhere, and she was sent by her family to a neighbor's house to be out of harm's way. That placed her just behind the Union lines. There she interacted with various soldiers and civilians, including Generals Mead and Weed. Many of the combatants were very kind to her. Seeing wounded in a barn made her cry. Without a change of clothes, waiting four days for things to be over, sloshed with mud from the churned up terrain, she became filthy dirty--so much so her mother didn't at first recognize her when she returned home. Get the book.