85 pages 2 hours read

Harold Keith

Rifles for Watie

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1957

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Chapters 23-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 23 Summary: “The Redbud Tree”

Lucy looks at his uniform, happily assuming that he must have enlisting in the Confederate army. She takes him aside, kissing him. Jeff tells Lucy that he hasn’t stopped thinking about her. He is no longer thinking about Clardy or returning to the Union camp. She tells him that she has been worried about him and asked Belie for information but only learned that he had been sent out as a scout months ago and hadn’t returned. Lucy tells him that the Washbournes had left Tahlequah and, like the Jackmans, relocated to Texas. She expresses her joy at seeing him in a rebel uniform and asks what convinced him to switch sides. Realizing that Lucy’s happiness was based on a mistaken assumption, Jeff confesses that he is a Union scout. He tells her everything that has happened from Bostwick’s death to his sending word to Fort Gibson before falling ill and Clardy’s treachery. Jeff goes on to tell her that he has grown to like the people he has met on the Confederate side. Full of hope, Lucy urges Jeff to join the Confederacy, confident that the rebels will triumph. Jeff realizes that the choice to return or stay means choosing to be with Lucy or leave her behind.