1000 word excerpt -

The Heartbeat of a Drummer Boy is a historical, romantic novel about two teenage lovers during the Civil War. Teenagers especially should find it interesting and educational.

Interesting -- because it dramatizes little about the accomplishments of Generals and their armies using the military strategies of the times. Let the detailed military facets to the Civil War History Buffs instead, allow this history to be seen from the perspective of some young contemporary people and add a dose of fiction whenever necessary.

Educational -- because the setting and history is accurate and perhaps easier read and remembered when presented in a novel form.

Jeff and brother Jeb enlist in the Confederate Army following a patriotic parade of General Lee's Army of Northern VA through Leesburg, VA. Lee's Army had just completed its second confederate victory at Manassas. Afterwards, the toy soldiers follow his army into the invasion of Maryland and proceed north to Frederick City where Jeff meets and falls in love with a farmer's daughter who shares his interest in horses and farming.

The drummer boy and bugler brother led General Stonewall Jackson's famous parade as it left Frederick City. The same parade, which prompted John Greenleaf Whittier to write the poem Barbara Fritchie. Dispersed through the story are interludes about the origin of the songs and music that they enjoyed and which continues to have considerable interest today, 150 years later. Quite by accident, they became responsible for the transfer of Lee's Special Orders 191 to General McClellan's defending Federal Army. The loss of these orders led to one of the greatest leaks in military history.

Just before the famous Battle of Antietam they became associated with Clarissa, the Angel of the Battlefield, who improvised armbands with a red cross, painted with red wine to signify a neutral. They may have been the first to wear the red cross to designate a medic. Clarissa (Clara) Barton later became the founder of the American Red Cross.

On the battlefield Jeff is reunited with his sweetheart, who is now an injured Federal soldier, and despite his own injury hastens to take her and his brother Jeb to Washington City for expert medical treatment.
He apparently fell short of this goal because their remains were found about one hundred years later, along the C and O Canal some twenty miles short of Washington.