How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
They'd divvied up, some for the North, more for the South. Why didn't they just fight it out right here in the road, fair and square? Did they even know it could end with them killing one another in some godforsaken loblolly far from home? (2.42)
Tilly has a point. Fighting it out on a small scale right there at home would save all of these guys the hassles of training camps—you know, like measles and dysentery.
Quote #2
The minute Mama heard that the cotton states were seceding, she feared anew for Noah.
Then this month when Little Napoleon Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay, the whole sky darkened. Another week and Lincoln had proclaimed his blockade of the Southern ports. Now he was calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers to fight. (3.8-9)
Nice. Tilly gives us a quick peek at the way the war's shaping up (hint—it's North versus South), so we don't have to do the old web search to figure out what's going on.
Quote #3
And the boats still came. We didn't know how quiet the first weeks of war can be. We had no experience of war. (6.2)
Even after a war is declared, it can take a while for it to trickle down from governments to everyday life, so we can't blame Tilly for thinking things (including steamboats) are going to drift along in the same way for a while.