by Gary Paulsen
But for Samuel, it would come to a close in the soft beauty of the forest. The peace, for him, would hold.
Afterword
Woods Runner is not an attempt to write the history of the War for Independence. Rather, this book, along with being the story of Samuel and his parents and their part in the war, is meant to clarify some aspects of that conflict that have often been brushed over.
Some of the dreadful nuts and bolts of battle, the real and horrible truths, are frequently overlooked because other parts are more dramatic and appealing. There is a tendency to clean up the tales of war to make them more palatable, focusing on rousing stories of heroism and stirring examples of patriotism, all clean, pristine, antiseptic.
But the simple fact is that all combat is outrageous—thousands and thousands of young soldiers die horrible, painful deaths lying in their own filth, alone and far from home, weak and hallucinating, forgotten and lost.
The Revolutionary War lasted for eight long slaughtering years. Over two hundred thousand men between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five answered the call in the War for Independence and stood to.
Stood to when that often meant death.
Approximately 4,400 young men were killed in combat—by a musket ball, exploding artillery, grapeshot from a cannon, or a steel bayonet shoved through their bodies.
Disease accounts for another thirty to fifty thousand losses. Although it is difficult to determine accurately the number of wounded men who subsequently died of infection, estimates put the figure between fifteen and thirty thousand. Open wounds were bathed with dirty sponges kept in pails of filthy, bloody water. Surgeons went days between washing their hands or instruments. Most of the wounded, seething with dirt, bacteria and infection, were sent home to die months later, well past any documented casualty roll.
The total figure might be on the order of sixty thousand deaths.
Although accurate records of the wounded never existed, the figure is generally thought to be about four wounded for every man who died on the battlefield or died of disease in the camps.
Back then, however, most of the wounded did not live, and so the proportion was more like two wounded for every man killed.
That puts the total casualty figure, conservatively, at a staggering 100,000 to 110,000. Out of just over 200,000 men who fought, at least half of them died.
In the eastern colonies, whole towns were denuded of young men; they sent their sons and fathers and husbands off and never saw them again, not even to bury them.
The men fighting, and dying, in the War for Independence were, for the most part, average young workingmen with little or no military training. They were fighting the most powerful nation on earth. And they suffered those horrendous casualty rates for an appalling eight years. That these young men and boys stood to as they did, in the face of withering odds, and actually won and created a new country with their blood, is nothing short of astonishing.
About the Author
Gary Paulsen is the distinguished author of many critically acclaimed books for young people, including three Newbery Honor books: The Winter Room, Hatchet, and Dogsong. His novel The Haymeadow received the Western Writers of America Golden Spur Award. Among his Random House books are Notes from the Dog; Mudshark; Lawn Boy; The Legend of Bass Reeves; The Amazing Life of Birds; The Time Hackers; Molly McGinty Has a Really Good Day; The Quilt (a companion to Alida’s Song and The Cookcamp); The Glass Café; How Angel Peterson Got His Name; Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books; The Beet Fields; Soldier’s Heart; Brian’s Return, Brian’s Winter, and Brian’s Hunt (companions to Hatchet); Father Water, Mother Woods; and five books about Francis Tucket’s adventures in the Old West. Gary Paulsen has also published fiction and nonfiction for adults, as well as picture books illustrated by his wife, the painter Ruth Wright Paulsen. Their most recent book is Canoe Days. The Paulsens live in Alaska, in New Mexico, and on the Pacific Ocean.
You can visit the author at www.garypaulsen.com.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2010 by Gary Paulsen
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Wendy Lamb Books,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of
Random House, Inc., New York.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Paulsen, Gary.
Woods runner / Gary Paulsen. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: From his 1776 Pennsylvania homestead, thirteen-year-old Samuel,
who is a highly-skilled woodsman, sets out toward New York City to rescue his
parents from the band of British soldiers and Indians who kidnapped them after
slaughtering most of their community. Includes historical notes.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89634-7
[1. Kidnapping—Fiction. 2. Frontier and pioneer life—Pennsylvania—Fiction.
3. Soldiers—Fiction. 4. Espionage—Fiction. 5. Indians of North America—
Pennsylvania—Fiction. 6. Pennsylvania—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—
Fiction. 7. United States—History—Revolution, 1775–1783—Fiction.]
I. Title.
PZ7.P2843Woo 2010 [Fic]—dc22 2009027397
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