By Kyle Van Vleet
The Civil War was a time of argument and hostility for the North and South. At this time, there was not much that could be agreed upon. Both the North and South reached their boiling points and in turn the South seceded from the Union, thus causing the Civil War to start in motion. There were many battles that happened over the course of the Civil War but only a few are remembered, one such battle is Bull Run.
In the novel Bull Run by Paul Fleischman the story of the Battle of Bull Run is told through the eyes of multiple characters. In order to give a rounded idea and perspective of the battle, Fleischman creates characters for both the North and South. Some of the characters include Colonel Oliver Brattle, Shem Suggs, Carlotta King, Lily Malloy, and Nathaniel Epp. Colonel Oliver Brattle is from Charleston, South Carolina, he owns slaves, and supports the South’s cause. He later becomes an adviser to General Beauregard and participates in Bull Run. Shem Suggs is a 19 year old from Arkansas who loves horses and when he sees that the South needs cavalry members he decides to join. Carlotta King is a slave from Mississippi and had accompanied her owner to the battle, but her goal is to escape to the North and be free. Lily Malloy is a younger woman from Minnesota and is the brother of a man who decides to join the Union army. Nathaniel Epp is a photographer who has been all over the U.S., but he decides to go to Washington D.C. to take photos of soldiers and make tons of money.
The book starts off from the perspective of Colonel Oliver Brattle. In this portion of the novel the Colonel is woken from his sleep by loud noises. It turns out that the loud noises are cannons being fired upon Fort Sumter, which is what officially starts the Civil War. Later in the novel comes a portion from Nathaniel Epp’s view. He is in Washington D.C. and taking pictures of soldiers. Everyone is excited and war has not sunk in, until one soldier’s gun goes off killing the man Epp was taking a photo of. The reader gets a sense of how relatives acted during the war through Lily Malloy’s excerpts. During one of her sections it talks about how the farm was not as well taken care of and she would write letters to her brother telling him that everyone missed him and he needed to be safe. It was a nervous time for family members. Later in the novel it gets into the battle. Shem Suggs writes about how he and his fellow cavalry members rode after Union soldiers who ran from the field and captured around 100 of them. During this, he mentions all the dead horses on the battlefield and feels horrible for them. The end of the novel is seen from Lily Malloy. In the section it tells that there was news of Bull Run happening and that the Union was defeated. Lily also learns that her brother had been killed in the battle.
Overall, this novel was a fun read. It was interesting and full of facts. Bull Run is able to summarize what happened during the real battle of Bull Run and he does it in a creative way that shows many aspects and perspectives. I would teach this book in my classroom because it is not the typical history book that is straight forward, all facts, and boring. This novel spices things up and I feel would make the students enjoy the Civil War.