The book follows Charley, a twelve-year-old boy who runs errands for the leader of the
Bowery Boys. Then he decides to leave home after joining the Bowery Boys gang and causing trouble. All Charley wants is to be like his older brother Johnny, who was killed during the
Battle of Gettysburg, so he leaves behind his gang life to join the
140th Regiment. He is initially eager to fight, but flees shortly after shooting a
Rebel soldier. Ashamed, Charley keeps running and is captured by an enemy soldier but later flees again after gaining a chance to escape. He keeps running until he reaches the
Blue Ridge Mountains, where he lives with Granny Bent, an elderly mountain woman who calls herself a "doctor-woman". Charley learns much from her and gains a new sense of maturity and self-respect. He is inevitably forced to flee again but with the knowledge that what he has gained from his time in the mountains will go with him. ==Reception==