Summary Of Charley Skedaddle

Charley Skedaddle was a book written in 1987 by Patricia Beatty, based on events that happened during the Civil War, such as the Union Army fighting against the Confederates. The plot of the book revolves around a young Irish boy, Charley Quinn, who was a part of a New York gang, but then joined the Union Army after his brother died in the battle of Gettysburg. After joining the army and becoming a drummer boy, he becomes scared during the first fight he encounters, and runs away towards the west. There he meets many people, learns hard work and many lessons, and eventually finds his bravery at the end. As fictional and unnatural this book may seem at times, the plot and other details in the text maintain a sense of historical accuracy. One

The main idea of the story was that Charley, originally the drummer boy of the Union Army, got scared and deserted his regiment during his first fight with the Confederates. In the midpoint of the battle, he saw the man that looked after him, Jem, get shot and killed in the battle. Additionally, he sees his predecessor, Silas Gorman, needing his assistance after he receives a wound in the leg. Nonetheless, Charley runs away from the battle, making his way to the West. The desertion portion from the Union Army justifies the historical accuracy of the book, as there were multiple records of deserters from both sides of the war. From the article, “Civil War Deserters: Cowards of Heroes?” it can be seen that there was an immense total of over 300,000 deserters during the course of the Civil War. This segment helps prove the historical accuracy of the book as Charley Quinn fit in this large category of former soldiers. In consideration of there being about a tenth of the soldiers deserting their Army, it is believable that Charley was one of them. Likewise, as a consequence of being a deserter in the war, Charley had to constantly remain on the look out for Union soldiers that may recognize him as the drummer boy. The reasoning of Charley doing this is because the penalty of deserting is death, which is a punishment that he seemingly deserves. To illustrate, a section in the book that explains how the sentence is completed states, “For somethin’ real bad like desertin’, the punishment is to get shot” (Beatty 53). From this example, it can be shown that the book preserves the punishment of deserting from the Army is to be killed. This belief in the book determines it’s historical accuracy as in real – life, during the times of the Civil War; the verdict of deserting was death. For example, an article on the Internet, known as “Deserters in the Civil War,” says that,