ove, and all Jethro had to do was mention Mr. Yales name and Jenny would blush. Although Jethro knew he could talk to Jenny about anything, he preferred confiding in his brother Bill. Bill, like Jethro, liked school and had a love for learning. He took the time and thought all his decisions out carefully. He always did what he thought was right. Even if that meant that he would fight against Shad, his cousin, and even his brothers in the American Civil War. He supported the Confederate states proudly.This book is about how a family adjusts and basically survives during the Civil War. Jethro, who is used to the company of his brothers and his cousin in the field, takes on most of the chores around the house and the farming. All in all you could say that his family was a Union supporter with the exception of Bill, who fought for the Confederacy. Tom, Eb, Shad, and Jim all leave and fight for the Union. Even though more family members are on the northern side, the people in the town consider everyone in the Creighton family copperheads. They go as far as burning their barn down, and dumping oil in there well. The rest of the story reveals who lives, who dies, and how the family deals with each difficulty. The way Irene wrote the book was very appealing and it added to the storys historical significance. She wrote it in the slang type of dialect that they used in that time and place. She went on to include a letter that Jethro wrote the president, and the actual letter that Abraham Lincoln wrote back. There were two major purposes that were made obvious while reading this book. The first, and most important theme was one stating that families should stick together. This theme was brought out several times during the story. The most obvious was when Jethro first went to town and he was being told that his family was nothing more then copperheads because of the choice only one of his brothers had made. Paraphrasing Jethr...
