Imperfect Union, Chuck Raasch
Imperfect Union, Chuck Raasch
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Imperfect Union
A Father’s Search for His Son in the Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg

Author: Chuck Raasch

Narrator: Michael Kramer

Unabridged: 13 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/01/2016

Synopsis

On the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, Union artillery lieutenant Bayard Wilkeson fell while bravely spurring his men to action. His father, Sam, a New York Times correspondent, was already on his way to Gettysburg when he learned of his son’s wounding but had to wait until the guns went silent before seeking out his son, who had died at the town’s poorhouse. Sitting next to his dead boy, Sam Wilkeson then wrote one of the greatest battlefield dispatches in American history.This vivid exploration of one of Gettysburg’s most famous stories—the story of a father and a son, the son’s courage under fire, and the father’s search for his son in the bloody aftermath of battle—reconstructs Bayard Wilkeson’s wounding and death, which have been shrouded in myth and legend, and sheds light on Civil War–era journalism, battlefield medicine, and the “good death.”

About Chuck Raasch

Chuck Raasch is the chief Washington correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He was one of the five original long-form writers for USA Today when it began in 1982 and a national correspondent for Gannett News Service for twenty-five years. A graduate of South Dakota State University, he completed a journalism fellowship at Stanford and is a member of the National Press Club and the Gridiron Club.

About Michael Kramer

Michael Kramer is an AudioFile Earphones Award winner, a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, and recipient of a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award. He is also an actor and director in the Washington, DC, area, where he is active in the area’s theater scene and has appeared in productions at the Shakespeare Theatre, the Kennedy Center, and Theater J.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Monica

This is the brave story of a sad time in our country, centering on the lives of one family but rippling out to show the extent of the Civil War and its destruction.......more

Goodreads review by Mark

The story of New York Times correspondent Sam Wilkeson and his search for his son Lt Bayard Wilkeson in the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg. The author frames the book with an interesting review/analysis of journalism in the mid 19th century and specifically during the Civil War. While the sub......more

Goodreads review by theknitsmith

This book is impressively researched and written in a manner that brings you back to the Civil War - the time, its people and the battles being fought between what the combatants thought was good and evil. Chuck Raasch has a well-developed storytelling voice he uses to bring home the agony of a fath......more

Goodreads review by Sandy J

Imperfect Union brings a new perspective to the Battle of Gettysburg, through the microcosm of a father-son love story. New York Times correspondent Sam Wilkeson arrives at the battlefield to learn that his son, a Union officer, is wounded. Wilkeson then reports on the battle while trying desperatel......more

Goodreads review by Sam

Very similar to "The Big Burn" or "River of Doubt" (which are both awesome). Moves quickly, has a heart, and is packed with great info on Gettysburg and the rise of journalism. Recommend!......more

Quotes

“Chuck Raasch has written an important book, one that contains both an aerial and intimate view of the human cost of the greatest battle ever fought in North America.” Ken Burns

“This unique book tells the poignant story of Sam Wilkeson, a war correspondent who wrote one of the most eloquent reports of the battle of Gettysburg, and his son Bayard, an artillery commander who was killed in the battle. But Imperfect Union is a great deal more—an often poetic reflection on the meaning of war and peace, love and death, sacrifice and regeneration. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about Gettysburg, you will find something new here.” James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author

“Much has been written about Civil War journalism—and not just by me—but too little about Civil War journalists. Chuck Raasch has helped fill that void with an exhaustively researched yarn that not only sheds new light on the operations and operatives of the nineteenth-century press but also tugs at the heart with a story of gut-wrenching loss and inspiring faith.” Harold Holzer, multiaward-winning author of Lincoln and the Power of the Press

“With exceptionally wide-ranging research, Chuck Raasch has performed a great service in restoring this heroic saga to modern-day students of the period.” Matthew Pinsker, Pohanka Chair in American Civil War History at Dickinson College

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