Two Little Boys Grow Up Courageous During the Civil War

Two Little Boys is the story of Junior and Josh, two young brothers growing up in southeastern Ohio during the turbulent 1850s. They come to manhood as conflicts arise between residents of Ohio, a non-slave state, and the bordering slave state of Virginia. As young boys, they witness the terror of the capture of a runaway slave while on a hunt near their home. During a visit to the hilly recesses of isolated Calhoun County, Virginia, they quickly learn to cope with the passions of hostile local residents. There, Junior and Josh also meet the two young women whom they will court and come to love in the years ahead. The brothers struggle to cope with the explosive hatreds and prejudices of a portion of that county's population. The opening of hostilities between the North and South results in the formation of a group of Partisan rangers in Virginia called the Calhoun Moccasins. A tragic series of events cause the brothers to enlist in the Union Army. Junior and Josh survive the rigors of training at Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio, before serving in northern Virginia where their relentless Partisan foes attack their unit. Junior and Josh experience the: terrible loss of life, horrors of war, and heated debates and arguments, all while fighting at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Josh receives a critical wound at that battle and returns to his wife in isolated Calhoun to recover, with a resulting tragic end. An embittered Junior returns to action in Virginia, receives a severe injury during the Petersburg campaign, and goes home to southern Ohio to recover. He spends his remaining years among family and friends contemplating the war and its senseless loss of life.