Keith G. Bauer

The Destiny of Men: the Road to Gettysburg Keith G. Bauer

"The Destiny of Men," is a true and moving account of the lives of two ordinary Americans at a time in America's history, when ordinary men were called upon to do extra ordinary deeds. Louis Worcester, a Northern born Southerner and William Troup a youth from Pennsylvania were just two of the many who were called to arms by the cataclysmic events of the 1860's. The lives of these two patriots to their causes, forever changed that summer of 1861, when they began different; yet, parallel paths that would ultimately culminate on the fields of a southeastern Pennsylvania cross roads in the summer of 1863. Troubled by the horrors of war, these two men on different sides of a national crisis were determined to do their duty in spite of the potential cost to themselves and to their families. Their destiny, as is the destiny of all men, lay in the hands of God. This they believed and in this belief they trusted. Troup and Worcester perceived the war from two different military perspectives. One an artillery man and the other an infantry man, participated in every major battle between the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac, prior to the fall of 1863. Each witnessed the ultimate sacrifice made by so many for the causes they so fervently believed.  Each was equally willing to make the same sacrifice if so called upon by their nation or their Almighty. "The Destiny of Men" follows Troup and Worcester from their enlistments in pre-war excitement of 1861 through the arduous first two years of the war, climaxingon the slopes of a hill outside Gettysburg.