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

Charley is fifteen years old when he leaves his home in Winona, Minnesota for the first time to volunteer as an army soldier. He is strong from working in the fields at home and has a tall, thin build. Although he is young, he has the large hands of a man, “so big they covered a stove lid” (2). Charley lives with his mother and younger brother, Orren; his father was kicked to death by a horse, so Charley is the man of the house. Charley believes in God and desires to do the right thing.

When he first joins the army, he finds his role as a soldier boring. He must constantly perform drills and feels he is only “playacting” (8) at being a soldier. However, when Charley’s unit is called to Virginia from Minnesota, Charley’s eyes are opened to new things on the journey. He enjoys cushioned seats and delicious food on the trains, and is cheered by crowds at many of the stops. He also sees areas in which people live in poverty, and is immediately grateful for the relative comfort in which he lives at home. Finally, he sees an enslaved person and slave-owner for the first time. These eye-opening experiences give Charley a glimpse of the United States beyond his small hometown.

Charley’s first battle at Bull Run shocks him; Paulsen depicts him as both terrified and brave. When Charley sees men shot down on all sides, he questions how God could let such a thing happen. Despite his horror, Charley does not run; he obeys orders, and in the morning, marches towards what he believes will be his death. Subsequent battles show how Charley’s fear transforms him. He is overcome by a survival instinct and runs beyond the men in his unit to the front of the battle, becoming aggressive and feeling the need to kill the enemy before they can kill him.

Charley’s zeal in battle demonstrates the human drive for self-preservation, and the way fear can take over a person’s body and actions. At times, he experiences a numbing effect, such as after the third battle when he is sent to the hospital tent, only to find he is uninjured. On other occasions, Charley shows emotional responses to the horrors of battle. For instance, he cries silent tears when Nelson is shot during the second battle.

In the novel’s final chapter, Paulsen shows that Charley is no longer the same boy who left to join the army. Although he survived the war, his chance at a normal life is gone. Battle has aged him physically and emotionally. His body is weak and broken and his mind is haunted by the things he has seen and done. The trauma of battle and of what it took to survive drives Charley to contemplate suicide. Charley’s character allows Paulsen to depict the experience of a Civil War soldier and to highlight the difficulty of post-war life at a time in history in which people had no awareness of PTSD’s existence, let alone how to treat it.