The story of a southern Illinois family, torn between loyalty to their southern back-ground and loyalty to their country; of young Jethro Creighton, who bore the burden of a man's work as a boy of ten, when the men went off to fight; of a family, a county, a state, a nation, in the agony of a fratricidal war.

April was blooming in the land when the news of the surrender of Fort Sumter came to the southern Illinois countryside. From that day on the singing of the birds was a crying, and the hard work in the fields was made heavier by the hard news of battles lost and young men slain.

The great figures of the war move across the Lincoln and Grant and Sherman—General George Thomas, the "rock Chickamauga," the staunch Virginian remained faithful to the Union—Get Robert E. Lee, who refused to fight against his state, his family , and his friends; and the humble people, North and South, who bore the brunt of the terrible conflict. Here is an unforgettable story of a tragic and crucial period in our country's history.

From the dust jacket