How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
A bunch of local boys met up after their work, pretending to soldier. You couldn't get many boys to stick up for U.S. Grant and the North that April. Only the Henson boys and Gideon Hickman and Jack Popejoy. And Noah.
[…]
Down the road by the old stone structure that served as schoolhouse, a bigger bunch of boys drilled. But they drilled for the South and Jeff Davis. (2.39, 41)
This novel doesn't get into too many of the politics and reasons why Southern Illinois is so split between support for the North and support for the South, but it is interesting to see how nothing is black and white—or blue and gray, as the case may be.
Quote #2
Then this month when Little Napoleon Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay, the whole sky darkened. Another week and Lincoln had proclaimed his blockade of the Southern ports. Now he was calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers to fight. (3.9)
Things are heating up for sure, but it takes some time for the kettle to boil. War is like that: it takes a while for everyone to get their forces lined up so there can be a war.
Quote #3
It was true there was unrest up there. On the day Lincoln took his oath of office, a Confederate flag was rung up over the Berthold mansion in St. Louis. Confederate flags rose above some of the best houses on Olive Street, according to word we'd had. People said the only safeguard to Federal authority in Missouri was the St. Louis arsenal. Soon, people said, there'd be blood in the streets. (3.35)
St. Louis, a large city in a border state and a major gateway to the valuable Mississippi River, doesn't have the option of remaining neutral, and her citizens are ready to fight each other to make sure the city goes their way.
Quote #4
It took the morning for Delphine and Calinda to unpack. Mama and Cass and I heard the thump and scrape of their trunks from above, and the mumble of their voices. Scents this house had never known drifted down to us: the sweetgrass of their baskets, the lavender of sachets. Who knew what came tumbling out of those treasure chests? I wouldn't have minded a look but it was none of my business. (5.1)
Sweetgrass and lavender are not what we think of when we think of Illinois, that's for sure. Worlds collide with Delphine and Calinda's arrival.
Quote #5
On the porch of Jenkins's store, Mr. Clarence Worthen and Old Man "Dutchy" Brunckhorst were going at it, hammer and tongs. The Worthens' ancestry was Kentuckian, and they still called themselves Southern. Old Man Brunckhorst was straight from the old country and staunch for the Union and Lincoln. Each had a finger in the other's face. (5.12)
Like the boys who divide up to drill, the old men take sides. We guess a good porch debate is their version of drilling.
Quote #6
"Ah, ma chère," she said, "imagine-toi Maman and Papa in the brilliance of the ballroom, leading a quadrille. Always, always the first on the floor." She sketched this romantic couple in the Illinois air. (5.43)
Grand Tower has never seen the like of Delphine's parents, and she wants everyone to know that. At least she seems to like them a lot, which is more than a lot of teenagers can say.
Quote #7
Then in the middle of May, with Missouri turning on itself across the river, the blockade was enforced. The boats no longer ran between here and New Orleans, and so there was no turning back for Delphine and Calinda. (6.45)
The line is drawn in the sand, or in this case, the river. And with that, Delphine and Calinda have no choice but to figure out how to hold fast to their New Orleans ways in Illinois.
Quote #8
Front Street was a loblolly down by the landing, and so Delphine had to gather her skirts to keep them clear of the mud. This brought every loafer in Jackson County to the porch of T.W. Jenkins's store, hoping for a glimpse of her ankles. Until the last showboat played Grand Tower that summer, Delphine was the greatest draw in this part of the state. And this Secesh gal strolled a town that was snapping with the Stars and Stripes of Union flags. (7.3)
It's a tale as old as time: nothing's as attractive as the enemy. Oh, and "Secesh" means Delphine is pro-secession. It's interesting that while the men are busy fighting among themselves, when it comes to Delphine, they seem ready to lay down their politics.
Quote #9
As I'd never seen a play, it was hard to follow. But one of the sisters was dutiful. I understood that. The other one was headstrong and seemed not to have a brain in her head. It took me most of the play to decide that the dutiful daughter represented the Union and the other one who wouldn't listen was the Confederacy. So there was the Yankee daughter and her Secesh sister. (8.23)
Funny how closely the symbolic sisters in the play match up with Tilly and Delphine. Tilly, a Union girl, is nothing if not a dutiful daughter. Delphine, a Confederate sympathizer, often acts silly—but of course, it's a huge act to cover how smart she really is.
Quote #10
I wouldn't mourn Paw. He'd learned us long before how to get by without him. And all he'd left behind himself was there in Noah's hand. It was fitting that Paw had ended up fighting on the other side. He'd never been on ours. (14.54)
Many books that deal with the Civil War address the idea of "brother against brother." Here, we have father against son. How are those concepts similar and different?