Imperfect Union
A Fathers Search for His Son in the Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg

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 sons wounding but had to wait until the guns went silent before seeking out his son, who had died at the towns 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 Gettysburgs most famous storiesthe story of a father and a son, the sons courage under fire, and the fathers search for his son in the bloody aftermath of battlereconstructs Bayard Wilkesons wounding and death, which have been shrouded in myth and legend, and sheds light on Civil Warera journalism, battlefield medicine, and the good death.