Residents of History: A Novel about the Civilians of Gettysburg

In a taped interview for the Works Progress Administration during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Friemuth, who were teenagers during the Battle of Gettysburg, reminisce on the experiences of the people of Gettysburg during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. The cover photograph of John Burns, " The Hero of Gettysburg," the 69-year-old man who grabbed a rifle on the first day of battle and joined the fray, is by famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady. John Burns was the one man that Abraham Lincoln wished to meet when he arrived in Gettysburg in November of 1863 to deliver "a few appropriate remarks" at the dedication of a National Cemetery. Burns' story as well as dozens of others make up the vignettes of the novel.