Chris Brabson hated the Union troops—and he had his reasons. Yankee raiders in the Tennessee mountains had stolen the newly harvested crops, all the meat supply laid by for the winter, and the Brabsons' only horse. A Union soldier had even taken Chris's deerskin shirt—the one for which he'd tanned and cured the hides so carefully—before he'd had a chance to wear it. Chris could not understand how his brother could have joined the Northern Army nor how his mother and father, despite their abhorrence of war and its destruction, could fail to take sides. But one thing he did know—he would fight for the Confederacy.

Swept on by his burning hatred, Chris reports the presence of a Yankee supply train coming up the valley. Only when he learns his brother is probably in that troop does the full meaning of his act strike him. Caught in the bitter battle at dawn, when the Confederates make a surprise attack, Chris comes to realize the full meaning of his father's words : "A man can believe the Union ought to stay in one piece and still be a good decent man that don't deserve to be killed. Or a body can favor secession and the Confederacy if that's the way he feels about it. Like I told you before, war is the worst thing that can happen to folks, and the reason is it makes most everybody do things they shouldn't."

William O. Steele, one of the finest writers of books for young people today, combines a deep sense of human values with rare, storytelling skill in a compelling book that carries the reader without pause to the very end. The Perilous Road is not only a stirring story of the War between the States, but a superb portrayal of the difficult and dangerous path one boy must follow before he learns the senseless waste of war and the true meaning of courage and tolerance.

From the dust jacket