Will's War

On an ordinary April morning, Will Bradford leaves his unhappy Connecticut home in the 21st century and unexpectedly finds himself in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The year is 1861 when talk of Civil War is everywhere. Will, a young boy of thirteen, grows to be a man by the time the war ends in 1865. As he travels through the Civil War, Will meets Confederate soldiers, Union soldiers, southern people, northern people, guerrilla fighters and runaway slaves. He loses a friend and learns about death at Bull Run. He rescues a Union soldier on the Valley Turnpike; he acts as a medic at Gettysburg; he fights on the battlefield at New Market and is present at the Confederate surrender. Will is like many young men facing war for the first time, but he is also unlike them because he knows the outcome of this war. As he struggles to change what he can change and accept what he cannot, Will discovers the meaning of heroism, courage and forgiveness.