""An engrossing, realistic story"" -- Publishers Weekly ""War ain't nothing but wickedness. "" Chris Brabson is full of hate. He hates the Yankee soldiers who are camping in his beloved Tennessee woods; he hates their snotty Northern ways and their belief that they know what's best for the South; he hates that they've taken all of his family's food to feed their own troops. And he hates that his own brother has joined the Union side of the war when, to Chris, it is clear that the Confederacy is the side to fight for. When his hatred proves more powerful than good sense, Chris spies for the Confederates, revealing that a Union wagon train is camped in a valley near his home -- and his brother is probably in that train. Caught in the bitter battle at dawn, Chris discovers that in war, nothing is clear-cut -- good and bad are equally laid to waste by the horrors of the battlefield. A Newberry Honor Book Jane Addams Children's Book Award. William O. Steele (1917-1979) was born in Franklin, Tennessee. It was there, as a boy exploring the fields and woods around his home, that he developed an interest in the history and pioneers of Tennessee. Later, as a grown man, he would write his historical adventure stories from his home on Signal Mountain, where he could look at the same hills his characters saw during the days of the early frontier. William O. Steele published thirty-nine books over his long career, many of them award winners. Ramon de Ocampo, a graudate of Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, has performed in numerous Off-Broadway and regional theater productions. He has appeared on television and in films as well as radio plays and video games. He is a winner of the Princess Grace Award for Excellence in Acting and an OBIE award.