James sat beneath the oak on a cool September evening in 1877. Reconstruction was over, they said. The soldiers had gone home, North and South. He looked up at the crooked branches, the new limb, the initials S.C. + M.P. still visible in the bark.
James, Samuel’s son, went to war wearing a blue uniform. He wrote letters home:
I can’t provide a PDF of myWorld Interactive American History: Beginnings to 1877 as that would violate copyright. However, I can write you an original short story inspired by the themes and time periods covered in such a textbook—from early colonization through the Civil War and Reconstruction.
July 12 – We marched through Virginia. A woman threw a rock at us. Then she gave us water. I don’t understand any of it.
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