Finishing the Charge: Gettysburg Tall Tales & Short Stories

By J. R. Rada

This is Gettysburg like you've never seen it!

 

Gettysburg, PA, is known as the site of the Civil War battle, but so much else has happened there. The town has a cottage industry with ghost tours. Dinosaurs walked the battlefield. The first tankers in the country trained at Camp Colt. Proto-Indians fought battles over the mineral deposits. Witches frightened residents into the 1950s. And we haven't even got the fictional stories yet!

Gettysburg Tall Tales & Short Stories: Finishing the Charge is a short collection of stories set in Gettysburg and drawing from its rich history to create a new vision of Gettysburg. The stories offer something for everyone: historical fiction, humor, and the paranormal.

• "Finishing the Charge" is the story of a dying veteran's walk from southern Virginia back to the battlefield where his life was changed in 1863. Along the way, other aging veterans who feel the same pull from the battlefield join him in this final march to glory.
• "Too Much Ghost, Too Little House" taps into the many ghost stories in Gettysburg and asks, "What would happen if a ghost haunted one of the tiny homes in a Gettysburg campground?"
• "This Blood-Soaked Land" is a paranormal exploration of all the violence that has taken place on the battlefield and how it might affect the land.

Together, these stories show you Gettysburg in a brand new light!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AIM Publishing
• Release date: Aug 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215073629

J. R. Rada

J. R. Rada is the author of seven novels, a non-fiction book and a non-fiction collection. These include the historical novels Canawlers, October Mourning, Between Rail and River and The Rain Man. His other novels are Logan’s Fire, Beast and My Little Angel. His non-fiction books are Battlefield Angels: The Daughters of Charity Work as Civil War Nurses and Looking Back: True Stories of Mountain Maryland.He lives in Gettysburg, Pa., where he works as a freelance writer. Jim has received numerous awards from the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, Associated Press, Maryland State Teachers Association and Community Newspapers Holdings, Inc. for his newspaper writing.If you would like to be kept up to date on new books being published by J. R. Rada or ask him questions, he can be reached by e-mail at [e-mail] see J. R. Rada's other books or to order copies on-line, go to jamesrada.com.

Book preview

Gettysburg Tall Tales & Short Stories

Finishing the Charge

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by

J. R. Rada

AIM

Publishing

OTHER BOOKS BY J. R. RADA

Kachina

Kuskurza

The Man Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe

Polderbeest

Welcome to Peacful Journey

FINISHING THE CHARGE

Published by AIM Publishing, a division of AIM Publishing Group.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Copyright © 2021 by James Rada, Jr.

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

This book is a work of fiction. Any real events, names, characters, places, or incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

AIM

Publishing

Contents

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Author’s Note

Finishing the Charge

Too Much Ghost, Too Little House

This Blood-Soaked Land

A Special Preview: The Man Who Killed Edgar Allan Poe

About the Author

Author’s Note

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I have to warn you that you may think I’m schizophrenic after you read this book. Gettysburg Tall Tales & Short Stories is an experiment for me on multiple levels. At the very least, it’s me stepping outside my comfort zone.

You will notice this book jumps around to various genres. Finishing the Charge is straight historical fiction. Too Much Ghost, Too Little House is a humorous ghost story. This Blood-Soaked Land is supernatural historical fiction. What they all share in common is Gettysburg.

Now that I think about it, Gettysburg is just as schizophrenic as these stories make me sound. It is a town best-known for the Civil War battle fought here, but in the evenings, the ghost tours take over. It is also the location of dinosaur footprints, a WWII POW camp, a WWI tank training camp, and more. When you look at the big picture, this book should fit right in.

The idea for this project began when the writers group I belong to, The Gettysburg Writers Brigade, published an anthology in 2020. Members of the group contributed stories with only one criteria. They had to feature Gettysburg. The resulting anthology, Four Score and Seven Stories Ago, has historical fiction, ghost stories, murder mysteries, nonfiction, and science fiction. It became an online bestseller in multiple categories. Finishing the Charge was my contribution to that anthology.

As the group started making plans for a second anthology, I had a burst of creative inspiration for Gettysburg-based stories. I’m used to writing novels and non-fiction books, so coming up with short story and novella ideas was a change.

Within a month’s time, I had a dozen ideas for Gettysburg-based stories. Historical fiction, horror, humor, ghost stories, thrillers, mysteries, neo-western, romance, and paranormal. They are also set in different time periods of the area’s history and touch on all aspects of Gettysburg’s history.

Since the magazine market for short fiction is sparse, I decided I would release most of these stories as short e-books. My reasoning is that I can price a short book at 99 cents, and if a reader purchases it, expecting historical fiction and he or she gets a ghost story. After all, it was only 99 cents. On the other hand, if they enjoyed the variety, then they’ll enjoy the other volumes in the series I am writing. They also won’t have to wait too long between volumes since the books are short.

So, come with me for a vision of Gettysburg unlike any you have ever seen!

J. R. Rada

April 15, 2021

Finishing the Charge

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Finishing the Charge started out far differently than the final story you have here. I planned it originally as a novel that would have had a group of old veterans growing into a small army as they made their way to Gettysburg. It was inspired by stories I read about veterans walking to Gettysburg for the 50th anniversary in 1913 and Coxey’s Army marches.

My original idea also had a big climax with the veterans making a charge across the Gettysburg battlefield against police. Some people worried something similar would happen with Coxey’s Army when it arrived in Washington, D.C.

I decided the ending was too far-fetched, which is odd, given the other stories in this collection. Let’s just say it didn’t work for the story I wanted to tell.

When I decided to write this as a short story, I also decided to focus on the man who started the march. I streamlined his journey, but it was still missing something. That’s when the crows came in.

It all came together in the end, and I wound up with an intimate story that I liked better than the original idea.

So here’s the final product and the first of my Gettysburg stories.

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The shadows slid from Edward Simpson’s face as the sun inched over the tree line at the edge of his unplowed field. He blinked away tears, not from the brightness of the rising sun, but because of what it meant. He turned sixty-eight today, but never, in all his years, had a sunrise made him cry. This one marked the beginning of his journey that would only have one end.

Edward turned from the window. He put the sealed envelope he had been holding in his hand on the fireplace mantle. Paul Jefferson was written on the outside. Paul would see it when he eventually came inside the house to check on Edward.

He picked up the framed photograph sitting next to the envelope. It showed Edward and Marie on their wedding day thirty-nine years ago in 1872. She wore a pale yellow dress and he wore his broadcloth suit. They started into the camera, unsmiling because it would have been too long to hold a smile while the photographer took their picture. Sadly, the look became typical of their marriage. Smiles came few and far between. He had loved her, and he guessed he still did.

Edward pulled the back off the frame and slipped the picture out. He folded it and tucked it into his shirt pocket.

He turned to his favorite armchair, where he liked to sit and read in the evenings. Now it held his rucksack. He grabbed one strap, and with a groan, swung it up and onto his back. Then he picked up the canteen and hung it around his neck.

He paused at the front door, took hold of the walking stick leaning against the wall, and looked around the room. The pain in his head flared as if reminding him of his reason for leaving. Then Edward walked out the door, shutting it behind him.

He paused on the front porch, not looking forward to the