With engaging wit and humor, master storyteller Rodman Philbrick introduces readers to twelve-year-old Homer Figg, a backwoods orphan boy from Maine who has a gift for stretching the truth. When his beloved older brother is illegally sold into the Union Army, Homer runs away to save him. Along the way, he encounters spies, air balloonists, circus folk, ruthless slave catchers, and others who present readers with an insider's view of the Civil War era. Homer finally locates his brother, and then both of them are swept into the drama and chaos of the Battle of Gettysburg. Readers will never forget that day when Homer, his brother, and the heroic men of the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment defied all odds and held a rocky little hill that changed the course of American history.