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

“The only shooting war to come in a man’s life and if a man didn’t step right along he’d miss the whole thing.”

People expected the Civil War to be short-lived and viewed it as an exciting adventure. However, their expectations proved misguided as the Civil War lasted four years and was one of the bloodiest conflicts in US history. Charley feeds off the community’s energy and feels he will be missing out if he doesn’t enlist.

“Nobody thought it would be so bad. Nobody thought it could be so bad. And all the officers and politicians and newspapers said it would be a month or two, no longer. It would all be over by fall.”

Charley’s mother allows her young son to leave for war, ignorant of the danger awaiting him on the battlefield. Paulsen highlights a historically accurate sentiment; both the North and the South thought the war would be a quick and easy victory. He shows that people’s expectations, especially when fueled by pride and passion, can be inaccurate.

“It was all new to him. Charley had never ridden on a steamboat, never marched in a parade or had pretty girls wave flags for him and hand him sweets. Now, as he boarded the train and saw the plush seats and fancy inside of the car, he thought: I never, I just never imagined such a thing existed. It was, all in all, a simply grand way to go off to fight a war.”

Charley’s first months in the army open his eyes to life outside of his small hometown. He sees various parts of the United States and enjoys luxuries he never experienced before. Paulsen creates irony as he contrasts these exciting experiences with the violence and death Charley faces in battle. The war leads to wonderful, eye-opening experiences for Charley alongside horrific atrocities.