Chapter 1, June 1861 Summary

Soldier's Heart is based on a true story about a fifteen-year-old boy in Minnesota named Charley Goddard who lies about his age to join the First Volunteers of Minnesota to fight in the Civil War. Some of the events and time sequences are not completely factual, but the essential elements of the book's story are true.

Charley Goddard is a boy of fifteen in Minnesota in June of 1861. Talk of a civil war is escalating, and the excitement is catching. He hears talk of forming a volunteer regiment which could reach one thousand men. He has never been more than five miles from his hometown of Winona, but he is determined to join and become a soldier. The pay is eleven dollars a month, and he plans on sending it to his mother and Orren, his younger brother.

Charley has one...