HISTORICAL NOTES

 

First, this is a work of fiction. I discovered Tillie’s story while traveling in Gettysburg. Though they don’t know it, I’m deeply indebted to the Schriver House Museum for first introducing me to the story of the town of Gettysburg and Hettie Schriver in particular. It was while on a tour through that wonderful museum that the tour guide patiently answered my many questions, and after the tour, gave me several books to read. Almost as a throw-away, he also gave me Tillie’s memoir. I also owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Adams County Historical Society for their in-depth knowledge and willingness to share that knowledge. They have a fantastic library of first person accounts and I’m not ashamed to say I spent countless hours in there reading almost every one. Many of their comments and situations made it into my story, most particularly, Salome Myers recounting of hiding their maid, and Nellie Auginbaugh’s story.

In school, we learn about the movement of the soldiers and the progression of the battle, as though the town itself and the people living there did not exist. I don’t ever recall learning how the townspeople coped with this tragedy. I know I never learned what happened to the African-American community. When I read Tillie’s memoir, At Gettysburg: Or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle, I just knew I had to tell the entire story.

George Sandoe was the first civilian/soldier to die at Gettysburg. He was a married man in real life, but I wanted to honor him and I needed a way to do that. So in my story, George became Maggie’s unmarried beau. He was on his way to Carlisle when killed by Confederate skirmishers, who surprised him and his two companions, who managed to escape.

Maggie died in 1867. I couldn’t find anything that told me her cause of death, but a tuberculosis epidemic swept through the area, around that time, so it seemed natural that she should succumb to that disease.

Tillie did nurse soldiers at the Weikert farm and at Camp Letterman. She did not record in her memoir if she ever nursed the Confederate soldiers, but from what I learned of her through my research, I decided she was the kind of person who would have. She saw so much horror for a young woman of fifteen and I consider myself honored to have gotten to know her as well as I did. Out of necessity much of her life that she didn’t record in her memoir I invented. I tried to stay true to the Tillie Pierce that I came to know through years of study and I hope my readers feel I accomplished that goal. Tillie died in 1914 at the age of 66, just days after her birthday.