Although originally written for a young audience, the Civil War stories of Thomas Nelson Page (1853-1922) have broad, far-reaching appeal. His themes of moral and physical courage, honesty, truth, sympathy, loyalty and patriotism not only introduced youthful readers to these virtues - something sadly lacking in today's literature for the young - but also inspired adults to live by attractive example. This rare book of stories deals with the adventures of Southern children in occupied Virginia, and are culled from a number of Page's other hard-to-find volumes. They represent the best of the best. Since Page was himself a child in Virginia during the war, he brings to his stories a certain realism and feel for his topic that other writers - working from a distance of more than a century - couldn't possibly achieve. Although Page wrote idyllically of the war and the South, the quality of his writing, the exciting stories he created and the high-minded lessons (such as courage and duty) he sought to teach to young people made him one of the South's - and America's - most important writers.