A Dangerous Promise (Orphan Train Adventures, Book 4) (The Orphan Train Adventures)

in 1861, While Living With His Foster Parents At Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Twelve-year-old Mike Kelly And His Best Friend Todd Blakely Join The Union Army As Drummer Boys But ... school Library Journal gr 4-8-the Civil War Is Raging And Mike Kelly, 12, Who Came To The Midwest On An Orphan Train, Runs Away From Home With His Friend Todd To Join The Union Army. As Musicians In The Second Kansas Infantry, They Make A Long And Difficult March Into Missouri, Where They Encounter General Mcculloch's Missouri Guard At The Arduous Battle Of Wilson's Creek. Mike Is Wounded And Left For Dead; Todd Is Brutally Killed. Mike Looks On In Agony While A Man Takes An Heirloom Pocket Watch From His Friend's Body-he'd Promised Todd He'd Return It To His Sister If Anything Ever Happened To Him. He Is Rescued By A Confederate Soldier-someone He'd Known On The Orphan Train-and Eventually Rejoins His Regiment And Has Several Adventures And Close Calls With Confederate Sympathizers Along The Way. His Overriding Mission, However, Is To Retrieve Todd's Watch. Nixon Writes Energetically And Maintains An Aura Of Adventure And Danger. She Clearly Portrays The Horrors Of War, And The Particular Agony Of This War. Her Characters Are Finely Drawn And Multifaceted, The Plot Is Lively, And The Details Are Well Chosen. This Is History Come To Life.-joyce Adams Burner, Formerly At Spring Hill Middle School, Ks In 1861, while living with his foster parents at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, twelve-year-old Mike Kelly and his best friend Todd Blakely join the Second Kansas Infantry in the Union army as drummer boys but their dreams of glory end when they experience the full horrors of war at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in Missouri. When Todd dies in battle, Mike travels to the front lines to keep a dangerous promise: to return Todd's watch to his sister. It's 1861, and although Mike Kelly is far younger than the legal age of 16, he and his best friend Todd secretly join up with the Second Kansas Infantry and become army drummer boys. Mike's dreams of glory end when he's wounded at the bloody Battle of Wilson's Creek and must begin a dangerous adventure behind enemy lines. After being taken in by Captain Taylor and his wife in Kansas, twelve-year-old Mike Kelly and his friend Todd Blakely join the Union army as musicians and see the horrors of war firsthand in Missouri In 1861, motivated by dreams of glory on the battlefield, young Mike Kelly joins the Union Army as a drummer boy, only to discover the true horrors of war during the bloody Battle of Wilson's Creek.