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Chapter 8
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Across Five Aprils, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age
The Realities of War
Self-Determination
Personal Conviction
Hardship, Suffering, and Beauty
Summary
Analysis
Jasper County begins to fill up with deserters, dozens of hundreds of whom hole up at the Point Prospect campground. These men are armed and desperate. At first, they just steal livestock and produce from local farms, but by March their presence leads to violence.
The existence of Union Army deserters suggests the steep cost of war, even for those who believe in the cause for which they fight. But it also offers a reminder that one must follow one’s own convictions, because that's the only thing that will see a person through when the going gets tough.
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In the spring of 1863, the Union Army begins to draft able-bodied men between the ages of 20 and 45. Some men avoid the draft by hiring substitutes for the going rate of $300. And while some do this for the good of their families, for instance widowers with children to care for, others do it for less noble reasons. Local landowner Hig Phillips hired a substitute because—according to gossip—he believes that fools should do the fighting while “men of intelligence and property” should enjoy long and easy lives. Although no one respects him for this, he doesn’t much care—at least until a band of his so-called fools descend on his house in the dark of night and murder him in cold blood.
The draft-dodgers and deserters together suggest the North’s poor prospects at the moment, thus reminding readers—and those, like Jethro, who eagerly anticipated the glories of war in the spring of 1861—that war carries steep costs. And while in general the novel celebrates the freedom to choose one’s own path—like Bill’s choice to join the Confederates—it spares no pity for those like Hig Phillips or Guy Wortman whose selfishness and cowardice animate their actions. While self-determination is important, this episode suggests, the common good and common necessity sometimes impose limits on that freedom.
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While no one respected Hig Phillips, his lawless murder terrifies people around the county. Nancy moves in semi-permanently with the rest of the Creightons. Ellen no longer allows Jenny to ride into town for the mail alone; no one sleeps easily at night. One night shortly before Hig’s murder, a wagon pulled up to the Creighton farm. Three men with upstate accents jumped down and asked for Matt; Jethro invited them inside. These men are Federal Registrars charged with hunting down deserters, and they’re looking for Eb. They have reason to believe that he’s deserted and has been making his way home, and they remind Matt of the harsh punishment for harboring a deserter. Jenny jumps up in righteous anger and offers to escort the men though the house and the farm immediately so they can see for themselves that Eb isn’t there.
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Jenny leads the federal agents through the cabin, then she hands them the key to the smokehouse. She acidly suggests that if they want to find deserters, they may as well go to Point Prospect. When they look uncomfortable, she accuses them of bullying “a sick old man and scared womenfolk” rather than risking their lives to round up the deserters everyone knows stay at the campground. Sending Jenny back inside, the agents ask Jethro to fetch them a lantern. On their way to the smokehouse, they make mildly lewd comments about Jenny and mock Jethro’s “southern Illinois drawl” and “backwoods diction.” Jethro seethes with anger but controls himself as the men finish their search and charge him with notifying the Chicago office should Eb turn up.
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Spring comes early in 1863, and the first days of March find Jethro breaking John’s fields. Ellen worries about him, but he’s learned to handle a gun and never goes far from the house without it. One morning as he ploughs the field, he gradually becomes aware that every time he approaches the dense woods on one side, he hears a wild turkey call. After a while, he tethers the horses, picks up the rifle, and ventures into the woods. There, he finds Eb, so wasted and filthy that Jethro doesn’t recognize him at first. But Jethro is so happy that he forgets about the federal agents and ignores the obvious signs that Eb has, in fact, deserted.
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Eb refuses to shake Jethro’s outstretched hand, and he sourly remarks that Matt and Ellen would be scared and ashamed to see him now. Jethro stares silently as Eb bitterly describes the suffering he experienced in the Union Army—including the loss of his cousin and best friend, Tom, at Shiloh—and how it drove him to homesick distraction. Exhausted, Eb sinks to the ground. He visited the Point Prospect camp, he tells Jethro, but didn’t stay long—both because he’s sick to death of soldiers and because it’s a wild, dangerous group of men there. He just wanted to smell the fresh Illinois air, visit his beloved home, and find out news about John, Shad, and Bill. Jethro shares what little he knows about John and Shad, but no one has heard from Bill since he left.
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Eb tells Jethro he’s been surviving on what he can hunt or steal. Jethro runs back to the fencerow where he left his lunch of cornbread and beef and a jug of water. As his cousin scarfs down the food, Jethro warns him about the agents who visited the farm. Eb knows that he’s out of options. His battlefield chances of survival may have been slight, but deserting denies him any chance to return to his old life. He bitterly wishes he could just slink back to his old unit, sick and weak as he is. Jethro offers to bring him quilts and food while he hides out in the woods and they figure out what to do. Eb observes how much Jethro has grown up and moans that no one—not even President Lincoln—can help him now. Then he sends his little cousin back to work.
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Back at work behind the plough, Jethro wrestles with the decision he faces. He feels torn between a sense that deserters betray men like Tom who gave their lives in battle. But he also can’t imagine bearing the responsibility of Eb’s death, nor can he sit down to a hearty meal knowing that his cousin is slowly starving in the woods. He realizes that, while it’s easy to judge Eb’s choice, he doesn’t know what he would do in similar circumstances. And while he wishes Eb would just leave and absolve him of making a choice, he knows he must make a choice. How will he feel, he asks himself, if John or Shad die in action while he helps Eb the deserter hide from his responsibility in the woods? He bitterly reflects how, no matter what the men at the barn-raising want to believe, he does have adult worries.
Jenny notices Jethro’s distraction after dinner that night. It’s hard to deceive or divert his strong-willed, relentless sister. He finally feigns an upset stomach, causing Jenny to accuse him of smoking on the sly. When he refuses to respond to her allegation, she believes she’s uncovered the truth. Later, in his room, Jethro lies in his bed, unable to sleep. He wishes he could ask someone for advice, but he knows he can’t involve Matt or Ed Turner, nor can he make a trip into town to talk to Ross Milton. Then he remembers Eb’s words, that not even President Lincoln could help him. Jethro feels Eb must be wrong; the careful, judicious president considers problems from all sides and isn’t quick to judgment. Maybe he can help. Jethro creeps from bed, lights a candle, and, consulting Ross Milton’s grammar book, begins to write a letter.
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In the morning, Jethro gathers some food to take to Eb, as well as a kettle and a few lumps of sugar to brew him hot sassafras tea—Ellen’s coffee is too precious to risk his taking any. Eb looks a little better after a warm night’s sleep covered by the quilts Jethro took from Nancy’s cabin. Jethro asks if Eb would truly go back to his unit if he could, and Eb replies that he would jump at that chance for his life—if it were remotely possible. Jethro determines to send his letter to President Lincoln and invents an errand in Hidalgo to post it the following day. Matt doesn’t question Jethro because anyone doing a man’s work deserves the respect due to a full-grown man.
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Jethro feels a great deal of anxiety during the wait for a reply. During this time, Jenny mourns the distance his secret has created between them, and Eb keeps promising (but failing) to leave before Jethro or anyone else gets in trouble. Then, finally, Ed Turner comes over one day at noon with the mail. Jenny hopes for news from Shad and Nancy from John, but Ed only has a “purty important” piece of mail with a Washington return address for Jethro. Jethro instantly regrets his meddling and wishes to stay a “sheltered young boy” taking orders instead of having to think for himself. Nearly fainting from the tension, he opens the letter and reads it slowly. Then, after a moment’s pause, he reads it aloud to his family.
Jethro’s letter made it to President Lincoln personally, since his staff know how he cares about boys Jethro’s age and the concerns of his home state of Illinois. The president writes that he had already been turning over the difficult situation of Union deserters, which involves the competing imperatives of “military regulations,” “moral responsibility,” and “ordinary human compassion” before receiving Jethro’s letter. And, although he knows he will face criticism for it, the president has chosen the path of mercy. He plans to offer amnesty for all Union deserters, including Eb, who turn themselves in for reenlistment by the first of April 1863.
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