Phil Gutierrez

Soldiers and Ghosts: How Josh Simmons Spent His Summer Phil Gutierrez

Though little more than a boy, Private Josh Simmons is no green recruit of the Confederate Army. Now seventeen years old, he participated in the Battle of Gettysburg last year. Like most of his fellow soldiers, he doesn?t truly understand the underpinnings of the battle, but he has faith in his commanders, especially General Robert E. Lee. Simmons fights on the premise the blue bellies are down here threatening his home and his family. He also knows death waits for him up some road, trail, field, or grade.

Now, a century and a half after the most momentous struggle in American history, Soldiers and Ghosts tells the story of the American Civil War from ground level through the eyes of Simmons, a Confederate infantryman. It narrates the experiences of young adolescents during one of the most dramatic and chaotic moments of that Wilderness Campaign of 1864.

The first book in a trilogy, Soldiers and Ghosts tells a tale of valor amid the horror of unceasing battle and struggle as the Ghost Army gained recruits at feverish pitch during the darkest days of the Civil War.