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Two Little Confederates
This is a delightful fictional account of two ten-year-old boys' adventures and escapades while living at home in rural Virginia during the War Between the States. They are innocent of modern day attitudes, and the story is sympathetic to both sides of the conflict in the sense that war is difficult for both sides involved. The relationships are heart-warming and real and the boys demonstrate budding character traits of honorable young men.
156 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1888
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About the author
Thomas Nelson Page
368 books8 followersBorn at Oakland, one of the Nelson family plantations, in the village of Beaverdam in Hanover County, Virginia to John Page and Elizabeth Burwell Nelson. He was a scion of the prominent Nelson and Page families, each First Families of Virginia. Although he was from once-wealthy lineage, after the American Civil War, which began when he was only 8 years old, his parents and their relatives were largely impoverished during Reconstruction and his teenage years. In 1869, He entered Washington College, known now as Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, Virginia when Robert E. Lee was president of the college. After three years, Page left Washington College before graduation for financial reasons. To earn money for the law degree he desired, Page taught the children of his cousins in Kentucky. From 1873 to 1874, he was enrolled in the law school of the University of Virginia in pursuit of a legal career. At Washington College and thereafter at UVA, Nelson was a member of the prestigious fraternity Delta Psi, AKA St. Anthony Hall.
Admitted to the Virginia Bar Association, he practiced as a lawyer in Richmond between 1876 and 1893, and began writing. He was married to Anne Seddon Bruce on July 28, 1886. She died on December 21, 1888 of a throat hemorrhage.
He remarried on June 6, 1893, to Florence Lathrop Field, a widowed sister-in-law of retailer Marshall Field. In the same year Page gave up his law practice entirely and moved with his wife to Washington, D.C..There, he kept up his writing, which amounted to eighteen volumes when they were compiled and published in 1912. Page popularized the plantation tradition genre of Southern writing, which told of an idealized version of life before the Civil War, with contented slaves working for beloved masters and their families. His 1887 collection of short stories, In Ole Virginia, is the quintessential work of that genre. Another short-story collection of his is entitled The Burial of the Guns (1894).
Under President Woodrow Wilson, Page served as U.S. ambassador to Italy for six years between 1913 and 1919. His book entitled Italy and the World War (1920) is a memoir of his service there.
He died in 1922 at Oakland in Hanover County, Virginia.
Admitted to the Virginia Bar Association, he practiced as a lawyer in Richmond between 1876 and 1893, and began writing. He was married to Anne Seddon Bruce on July 28, 1886. She died on December 21, 1888 of a throat hemorrhage.
He remarried on June 6, 1893, to Florence Lathrop Field, a widowed sister-in-law of retailer Marshall Field. In the same year Page gave up his law practice entirely and moved with his wife to Washington, D.C..There, he kept up his writing, which amounted to eighteen volumes when they were compiled and published in 1912. Page popularized the plantation tradition genre of Southern writing, which told of an idealized version of life before the Civil War, with contented slaves working for beloved masters and their families. His 1887 collection of short stories, In Ole Virginia, is the quintessential work of that genre. Another short-story collection of his is entitled The Burial of the Guns (1894).
Under President Woodrow Wilson, Page served as U.S. ambassador to Italy for six years between 1913 and 1919. His book entitled Italy and the World War (1920) is a memoir of his service there.
He died in 1922 at Oakland in Hanover County, Virginia.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 9, 2013
A horrible little book originally published in 1888 and reprinted in 1994. Why anyone in their right mind would reprint this celebration of the Confederacy, where slaves are devoted "servants" and "bonds of sympathy" existed between the mistress of the plantation and her devoted "servants," is beyond me.
Someone sent the book to the school and our librarian asked if I could read it to see if it was appropriate to put on the shelves. The only use for this type of book today would be for those who want to do some type of literary analysis into understanding the mindset of white southerners in the 1880's. Many of my high school students would instead find themselves focusing on the "adventures" of the two boys, if they read the book at all.
Perhaps more troubling is the introduction to the new edition written by the Pastor of Dominion Baptist Church. He extols the Christian character of Thomas Nelson Page,the author, describing the families faithful Bible reading, attendance at worship and their regular midday prayers for the Confederate soldiers. No doubt the family always treated their "servants" as Christian brothers and sisters as they lived together in the freedom of Christ. (and for those who can't tell, that is written with sarcasm)
Someone sent the book to the school and our librarian asked if I could read it to see if it was appropriate to put on the shelves. The only use for this type of book today would be for those who want to do some type of literary analysis into understanding the mindset of white southerners in the 1880's. Many of my high school students would instead find themselves focusing on the "adventures" of the two boys, if they read the book at all.
Perhaps more troubling is the introduction to the new edition written by the Pastor of Dominion Baptist Church. He extols the Christian character of Thomas Nelson Page,the author, describing the families faithful Bible reading, attendance at worship and their regular midday prayers for the Confederate soldiers. No doubt the family always treated their "servants" as Christian brothers and sisters as they lived together in the freedom of Christ. (and for those who can't tell, that is written with sarcasm)
April 8, 2019
What a wonderful book for all ages
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Two Little Confederates (Kindle Edition)
A free Public Domain Book
Publication date: March 23, 2011
Language: English
ASIN: B004TILCDS
This is a story for all of us who love good writing, good stories, interesting people and the South. It is also a good novel for those seeking to understand the South. The story follows the adventures of two boys who are too young to enlist in the army. As the war progresses their attitudes and beliefs slowly change to the point that they accept Yankees as fellow sufferers rather than just as demons in blue.
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Two Little Confederates (Kindle Edition)
A free Public Domain Book
Publication date: March 23, 2011
Language: English
ASIN: B004TILCDS
This is a story for all of us who love good writing, good stories, interesting people and the South. It is also a good novel for those seeking to understand the South. The story follows the adventures of two boys who are too young to enlist in the army. As the war progresses their attitudes and beliefs slowly change to the point that they accept Yankees as fellow sufferers rather than just as demons in blue.
December 3, 2017
A fun boys' adventure story about two young Virginian boys who live through the Civil War. It's got a couple of pretty heavy scenes involving death and war close-up that may disturb very small children.
October 31, 2023
A look at a bygone age.
August 16, 2019
A charming short novel (a “novelette”) from 1888 about two young brothers and their experience of the Civil War. The boys are not particularly finely characterized but they’re a fun duo. Several amusing episodes, the funniest of which involves the boys taking their squirrel guns to go capture deserters in the woods near their plantation. There are also run-ins with the Yankees that vary from alarmingly threatening to good natured ribbing.
The novel is apparently based on the author’s own boyhood experiences and is even set on his family’s real life plantation, Oakland in Hanover County. There’s a lot of real historical detail tucked away between the lines—the poor whites living in the pine woods, the ongoing problem of desertion for the Confederate army, loss of livestock to cavalry raiders, the slowly accumulating wants caused by wartime deprivations. Slavery is omnipresent but not the focus of the story, and anyone with a passing familiarity with the course of the war and the outcome of emancipation can read between the lines of some of the events of the book.
Still, the tone throughout is largely fun and nostalgic, but with some real pathos at the end as the war more directly visits the boys and their family. In the end, thanks to some acts of kindness and a lot of good luck, the boys’ family has a mostly happy ending.
I’m glad I didn’t read this before I wrote my novel Griswoldville, because I would have become paranoid about avoiding superficial similarities. Where my book is about the experience of the Georgia yeomanry, this is based on the author’s own experiences as the planter class scion of two of the First Families of Virginia.
As such, and accounting for its sentimental qualities, it’s an interesting window into the Virginia homefront. But it’s first and foremost a set of adventure vignettes geared toward boys.
The novel is apparently based on the author’s own boyhood experiences and is even set on his family’s real life plantation, Oakland in Hanover County. There’s a lot of real historical detail tucked away between the lines—the poor whites living in the pine woods, the ongoing problem of desertion for the Confederate army, loss of livestock to cavalry raiders, the slowly accumulating wants caused by wartime deprivations. Slavery is omnipresent but not the focus of the story, and anyone with a passing familiarity with the course of the war and the outcome of emancipation can read between the lines of some of the events of the book.
Still, the tone throughout is largely fun and nostalgic, but with some real pathos at the end as the war more directly visits the boys and their family. In the end, thanks to some acts of kindness and a lot of good luck, the boys’ family has a mostly happy ending.
I’m glad I didn’t read this before I wrote my novel Griswoldville, because I would have become paranoid about avoiding superficial similarities. Where my book is about the experience of the Georgia yeomanry, this is based on the author’s own experiences as the planter class scion of two of the First Families of Virginia.
As such, and accounting for its sentimental qualities, it’s an interesting window into the Virginia homefront. But it’s first and foremost a set of adventure vignettes geared toward boys.
April 1, 2014
A bit sentimental (typical of 19th-century stuff), but I enjoyed this when my mom read it aloud and envied the two hilarious little boys their adventures.
November 14, 2019
This is an excellent book about two little boys on a Virginia plantation during the Civil War.
read-childrens
July 29, 2019Not a little problematic.
April 7, 2015
Copyright 1888, Oakland Plantation, W.V., deserters, conscription officers, courting
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews