The Civil War is in its early stages when Joshua Stone leaves his home in rural North Carolina to help protect his family and to seek adventure. Joshua is taken to a training camp where he learns to soldier and becomes close to five other recruits who are his tent mates. He experiences war first hand at the battle of Fredericksburg. There he kills three enemy
soldiers. He then begins to question the rightness of taking another life. One dark night, at the battle of Chancellorsville, he shoots a shadowy figure who turns out to be his own general Stonewall Jackson. From this point forward he can no longer shoot at another man. His group of buddies dwindles to three. And now he is running across the fields at
Gettysburg as a part of Picketts charge. His two remaining companions are killed and he leaves something on the battlefield that will tie him to Stonewall Jackson for the rest of his life.
The story explores the issues of the justified killing of another human being, the treatment of negroes and the effects of war on soldiers both physically and mentally.
Despre autor
TOM MORRISON WRITES books for young adults based on
historical facts and situations. He hopes to inspire his readers to
do their own further research on the subjects he covers. He has
an undergraduate degree from Fairfield University and a doctorate from
the Chiropractic Institute of New York. Tom and his wife Barbara have
six children and nine grandchildren. They reside in Sunrise, Florida and
Breezy Point, New York.