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

“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.

“The war wasn’t initially about slavery; the troops were going to stop the ‘lawbreakers and wrong thinkers’ that were trying to ‘bust up the Union.’”

For Charley, the Civil War was about keeping Southern states from rebelling and seceding from the Union. While the Civil War was certainly a conflict over the legality of slavery, Paulsen shows that slavery was a secondary issue for soldiers like Charley, especially since slavery was not something he had been exposed to before.

“If he had profane thoughts as he went to war, they might infect his soul as the dirty clothes would infect his wound. And while he did not think he would die, did not think he would even be hit or hurt, did not think of it at all, still it was best to be careful.”

Paulsen characterizes Charley as a God-fearing young man. He wants to keep his conscience clear before God in case he is wounded or killed in battle. Paulsen uses the metaphor of clothing entering a wound to communicate Charley’s thought process. Clean clothing is less likely to infect a wound like righteous living is less likely to infect Charley’s standing with God.

“I’ll be there soon, he thought. I’ll be there on the ground with them. If I don’t run away I’ll be there like a broken doll. We all will. None of us can live if we walk out there again. But he could not run away. None of the others had and he couldn’t.”

Charley’s first battle experience turns his expectations to return home upside down. When he sees the bodies on the battlefield, he feels sure he will die. Even though he wants to run, he stays. Paulsen highlights Charley’s courage by showing that despite the likelihood of death, Charley remains with his unit.

“The training must work, he thought. I’m doing all this without meaning to do it. He felt like a stranger to himself, like another person watching his hands move over the rifle, wiping and cleaning.”

After months of endless drills that Charley finds boring, he finally understands the reason for the repetitive practice. On the battlefield and directly after the battle, when he is in a state of shock and too scared to think, his body performs the necessary movements to reload and clean his weapon. Details such as this show the reader how a soldier’s training is meant to keep him or her going in the face of fear and shock.

“Except that yesterday there were congressmen and their families on the hills, come out from Washington in buggies to picnic and watch the battle, and hadn’t they got more than they bargained for?”

Paulsen remains true to history in that spectators, including congressmen, came to spectate at the Battle of Bull Run. This detail coincides with the fact that politicians expected the war to be an easy victory for the Union. When the Union army started to retreat, the civilian picnickers withdrew alongside them.

“Any second. Now. Now. Now! Why don’t they shoot? What are they waiting for? Every breath his last, every sound his last, every sight his last—it would come now. God oh God oh God now!”

The choppy, repetitive diction in this quote captures the absolute dread running through Charley’s mind as he marches across the battlefield at Bull Run a second time, sure that it is a march to his death. Amazingly, despite his certainty that he will be shot, he continues to march, unwilling to desert.

“He could not live. Many others would die with him and many would live but he knew one thing: He would die. In the next battle or the one after that or the one after that he would die.” 

 Charley is a realist. While some of his fellow soldiers speculate that they will not be called into battle again, Charley knows better. Instead of relying on false hope, he faces the reality that he will inevitably fight more battles, and he remains convinced that he will die in battle at some point.

“The Minnesota regiment already had a reputation. They were called ‘cool under fire’ and ‘well disciplined.’”

The First Minnesota Infantry Regiment is known historically for their exceptional valor and discipline. Paulsen highlights this reputation in his description of Charley and his unit in their actions throughout the novel’s battles. The regiment is known particularly for their charge at Gettysburg, which Paulsen describes later in the novel. Although outnumbered five to one, they were called forward to break the approaching Confederate line, and in doing so, saved the Union position on the hillside and secured a Union victory.

“Charley looked at him, saw the innocence, and felt his own age. Not in years. He was only sixteen. But in meadows. He was old in the art of crossing meadows. He wanted to tell Nelson about it, about what would be waiting when they went up to that line of trees to ‘kick the Rebs out.’ He opened his mouth, started to say something, then stopped. There was too much, a world too much to say. You couldn’t say it. You had to live it. You had to see it.”

Paulsen emphasizes Charley’s character development by juxtaposing him with Nelson. After one battle experience, Charley is no longer the hopeful, innocent soldier he used to be. Although he wants to warn Nelson of the horrors in store, he knows that his warnings will fall on deaf ears. Nothing can prepare a soldier for what he will face on the battlefield. Charley’s innocence is gone, and combat has forced him to age beyond his years.

“He wanted to kill them. He wanted to catch them and run his bayonet through them and kill them. All of them. Stick and jab and shoot them and murder them and kill them all, each and every Rebel’s son of them. Not one would be able to get up. Not one. Kill them all. Before they could kill him.”

In his second battle, Charley’s fear manifests in the form of murderous aggression. His survival instinct takes over; he must kill or be killed. Paulsen’s use of vivid imagery and diction show the way combat and fear can transform a person and take over one’s character.

“One of the rules, he knew, was that you didn’t stop for the wounded. When a man went down he was alone, even if he was your brother.”

Charley cannot linger to comfort the wounded Nelson because he is expected to return to his unit. Care for the wounded, especially at the outset of the Civil War, was limited and disorganized. Surgeons could only help those who could potentially be saved and transportation for moving the wounded from the battlefield to the hospital was in short supply. Paulsen provides a glimpse of how the wounded were treated, and how soldiers were made to prioritize the battle over tending to the wounded.

“He did not like to look at people as much as he once did. He did not like to learn about them. It was better if he didn’t know them, become too friendly with them. They died so fast.”

Charley withdraws from the men in his unit, choosing to keep to himself and stay busy with camp work rather than getting to know his fellow soldiers. He knows that opening up to others will only make things harder for him if they die. The change in Charley’s social life reflects his struggle to cope with the harsh realities of battle.

“Here we be, both farmers, talking and trading goods and tomorrow or the next day we got to shoot at each other.”

Charley’s conversation with the Rebel soldier highlights the similarities shared by Northerners and Southerners. Charley and the Confederate soldier are of a similar age and share the same trade, yet the war makes them enemies. Paulsen shows that the Civil War pitted American against American, farmer against farmer, and brother against brother.

“He felt alone now. Always alone. He existed in a world that he believed—no, knew—would end for him soon. In the middle of the unit, drilling, eating, listening to the officers with men sitting packed all around him, he was alone.”

Charley’s withdrawal from the men in his unit and conviction that impending death is inevitable results in complete loneliness. He does not believe he will return home. Paulsen highlights the mental and emotional toll of the Civil War, and how a soldier was no longer the same person after seeing combat.

“The men marched down a country lane in the late afternoon. At any other time it would have been a beautiful place. Trees lined the roadway and though their leaves were gone the bare branches bent over the road, creating a cover. The sun shone through and dappled the road in light but Charley saw none of it.”

Paulsen uses imagery to depict the beauty of the country road, creating a contrast between the natural beauty that surrounds the soldiers as they walk and the unpleasantness that awaits them on the battlefield. Despite the horrors of the war in which they are involved, nature continues to showcase its beauty and the seasons continue to change.

“Always a field, Charley thought—there’s always fear and always a meadow.” 

On multiple occasions, Charley points out the battle setting: a meadow. This is consistent with historical battles of the Civil War, which were often fought in open fields. It also relates to Paulsen’s depiction of 1800s battle tactics and stands in contrast to modern warfare.

“He didn’t fret the men at all. They were going to kill him and he didn’t mind killing them first. But he hated shooting the horses.”

Charley is particularly bothered by the screams and gore of the Confederate horses. Paulsen shows that Charley has learned to cope with the violence and killing of men, but not of horses, since he sees them as innocent. Charley’s somewhat misplaced compassion shows the way battle has skewed his judgment and made him value the human lives of Rebel soldiers less than their horses.

“Charley became a madman. He attacked anything and everything that came into his range—slashing, clubbing, hammering, jabbing, cutting—and always screaming, screaming in fear, in anger and finally in a kind of rabid, insane joy, the joy of battle, the joy of winning, the joy of killing to live.”

Charley’s nature is once again transformed in battle. His fear drives him to blind rage. Paulsen shows the human response when one’s life is threatened: to survive at all costs. His choice to repeat the word “joy” disturbs the reader and subverts his or her expectations about close range fighting in battle.

“When it was done Charley lay on the ground in the lee of the dead men’s wall, just to get out of the wind for a minute and get warm, and slept there for five hours, sheltered by the dead. Third battle.”

When Charley must aid in building a wind-breaking wall out of soldiers’ dead bodies, Paulsen emphasizes the numbness that overtakes Charley and allows him to cope with the horrors he experiences. He also creates an interesting contrast by showing that Charley sleeps, seemingly peacefully, next to the gruesome structure that provides comfort and warmth. This quote demonstrates the appalling nature of war.

“The Confederates had to march through a storm of fire and Charley lay and watched them and nearly felt sorry for them. They were so brave, he thought—or foolish.”

As the Confederate army approaches at Gettysburg, they are gunned down in masses. This is the only time Charley expresses compassion for his enemy. Paulsen stays true to history and shows that the Union army held a distinct advantage at Gettysburg. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, but the Union army eventually emerged victorious. Despite being outnumbered and unlikely to win, the Confederate soldiers enter the battlefield and continue to advance only to be shot before reaching their enemy.

“So many of the men he knew were there already, gone across, that he thought it might not be so bad to go see them, to get away from this constant pain and the sounds he couldn’t stop hearing.”

After the war, Charley feels that death would be better than dealing with the physical pain and mental trauma he faces daily. Paulsen suggests that Charley suffers from PTSD and contemplates suicide. This moment emphasizes the mental effects of war.