ASIN: B00KP0TSXK
Publisher: Peggy Koch (May 31, 2014)
Pages: 48
When Confederate forces came to the home of 12-year-old Will Kerns and his mother Martha, he was forced to take part in the Battle of Pilot Knob, Missouri. Will was taught how to be a powder monkey; how to bring the explosive black powder for firing the cannon in the heat of battle. Will’s life was considered just as expendable as any older soldier.That battle took place in late September of 1864, more than three years after the beginning of the Civil War. A short time before, Confederate General Sterling Price had been ordered to invade Missouri with a force of 12,000 soldiers and to take control of the major rail line that ran from the Pilot Knob area into St. Louis, Missouri. Price expected that many men in Southern Missouri who had pro-Confederate sympathies would join in this venture. The hope of the Confederate leaders who gave the order was to win a great victory and therefore to ...
