William and Wesley's War

William Reddick was the nephew of Wesley Redick, great-great-grandfather to Thomas Redick (the Jacob Redicks lost one d in their last name in the 1870 census, but we still have cousins with two d's out there).

William met Kate Chase in 1859 at a speech her father, Salmon Chase, was giving; and after a horse ride together, William fell in love with Kate, after giving her his Whitman Leaves of Grass volume to read on the train home. Welsey loved Mary Sonders, William's former girlfriend, whose father was a Copperhead (opposing President Lincoln and his war). Both William and Wesley enlisted in the Seventy-Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry on December 23, 1863. They fought several battles against the Stonewall Brigade, handing Stonewall Jackson his first defeat at McDowell.

At the battle of Chancellorsville, William rode out and saw Stonewall and his men flanking the Union army. William and a captain of artillery told their generals, who did not believe them. After their colonel Reily made the same report and was called a coward and was told not to get ready to fight, Colonel Reily wisely disobeyed, and the Seventy-Fifth fought bravely while the rest of their division ran (earning the nickname the Running Moons, for the crescent moon on their flag). Both Colonel Reily and William paid the price for their bravery.

The Seventy-Fifth Ohio fought bravely at the Second Battle of Bull Run, saving their Union retreat in the face of the largest assault in the war. At Gettysburg, they stopped a flanking attack at dusk on July 2, forcing General Lee to attempt the full-frontal assault called Pickett's Charge.

William and Wesley had a real-life friend in Hubert Dilger, who won the Medal of Honor, and his invented friend named Sergeant Pfiggleschtein provides comic relief. William loved beauty and poetry and the Christmas song "Still, Still, Still" along this the whippoorwills he met on his spirit quest with his native guide and family friend. He met Walt Whitman when they were camping in DC. William never met Kate Chase again, but Wesley saw her back east when he attended a reunion. He told her how brave William was, and she expressed regret at not seeing him again. Wesley attended the ceremony of Hubert Dilger and knew that his Seventy-Fifth Ohio fought well.

We hope this novel helps to restore their hard-fought glory.