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Transcript

The Perilous Road

by William O. Steele

What did you learn from this novel?

I learned a lot from this novel. One of the main things was: Don't judge a book by its cover.

Chris decides to think that the Union soldiers are terrible because they only harm Confederates, but he doesn't see how they truly are to one another. Everyone's laughing together, they're all happy, helping each other out, ready to take sacrifices for each other. Many books have taught me this theme, but the Perilous road emphasized it a lot more, and I took it all in with a lot of meaning.

I also learned that everyone chooses to take their own path, for their own good. We shouldn't stop them from doing something that will help them in the future. We need to expand our lives as we grow, and that means that its our choice to do what we want, no matter what our friends or family tell us. Of course, it has to be right, not something that will harm us.

List and describe the main characters.

Chris Brabson- He's the main character, protagonist of the novel. Chris absolutely hates the Union Army, what he calls the Yanks. He sees the terrible things they do, and that gives him a negative view on the Yanks.

Silas Agee- Chris' so called friend. Silas went hunting with Chris all the time in Walden's Ridge, and had even helped him out when they almost were caught by the Union soldiers. When Jethro, Chris' older brother, decides to join the Union, Silas takes part in burning down the Brabson's shed.

What events in the cause, course or consequence of the Civil War are included in the novel?

When is the novel set?

Summarize the plot of the novel.

Jethro Brabson- He's Chris' older brother. Chris was both devastated and angered by the fact that Jethro had decided to join the Union Army

There were many spies in the Civil War, and they would go try to find different kinds of information from the opposing side. Just like that, Chris had found information about how the Yanks were going to be on a train and immediately notified the Confederates. However, that completely backfired Chris in this situation.

  • The beginning of the book is set around September 1863.
  • It was after the war in Gettysburg, which was in July of the same year.
  • The novel took place mainly in Walden's Ridge which is a mountain range located in the eastern part of Tennessee.
  • The novel ends in October 1863.

More Characters

Mrs. Brabson- She is the mom of Chris, Jethro, and Leah. She doesn't really care for either side.

Mr. Brabson-Father of Chris, Jethro, and Leah. He also feels the same about war.

He says,"War is the worst thing that can happen to folks, and the reason is, it makes most everybody do things they shouldn't"

Chris is staunchly supportive of the Rebels, not because he supports slavery (his family is poor and doesn’t own any slaves), but because the Feds took a deer skin jacket that he worked on for weeks, and because the soldiers also took his family’s food, leaving them hungry for the winter to come. When he finds out his brother Jethro has joined up with the Federal army, Chris is destitute.

  • There were two different battles going on during the two months of September and October.
  • One of them was called the Siege of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the other was called Wauhatchie, which was also in Tennessee
  • On September 16th, the Robert College of Istanbul–Turkey, the first American educational institution outside the United States, is founded by Christopher Robert, an American philanthropist.
  • On October 5th, The Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Rail Road starts operations in Brooklyn, New York; this is now the oldest right-of-way on the New York City Subway, the largest rapid transit system in the United States and one of the largest in the world.

What events are going on in the United States at that time?

There was an actual situation of a train ambush, which happened on October 2nd 1863. There was a spy, however it wasn't specified who, and he/she had told Confederate General Joseph Wheeler about the fact that Union soldiers were on a train going along the railroad near them. This made him act quickly, which lead to the cavalry raid of a Federal wagon train in Sequatchie Valley.

Summarize the plot of the novel.

His family is persecuted by the local people because of their “traitorous” family member, Jethro, so Chris decides to do whatever it takes to prove that he is a Rebel, through and through. But when his plan goes awry, Chris finds himself among the Federal soldiers–and discovers they might not all be so bad. It's too late though, because Chris had spied on them earlier, and found out about a train the Yanks were going to ride on. The Confederates were already planning an ambush, and even worse, Jethro was going to be on that train.

Civil War Novel Project

by Sanjana Prasad

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