Fire in the Meadow is a story told from the points of view of four young soldiers, who look across numerous battlefields at each other during the American Civil War. Two are brothers from a farm in Pennsylvania, and two are from a wealthy South Carolina plantation. This is an historical fictional work, inspired by historians like Shelby Foote and Gordon Rhea and novelists like Jeff Shaara and E. L. Doctorow. It is a saga from the imagination of J.S. Oakes, but actual timelines and battles are accurate. The author stays true to the facts known of Lincoln, Lee, Grant and others. The author tells the story, alternating from a Union to a Confederate perspective. It is the history, the truth of past events, that is the glue to hold the tale together. J. S. Oakes explores how the characters see the war and the fates that certainly will befall them. These issues create this gripping story of two families. Experience with them the battles in the Eastern Theatre, from Manassas to Petersburg. See the war from the perspectives of soldiers on both sides, and what they saw when they looked across the intimidating spans of the battlefields many times over. The conflict changes the lives of all the young men, and the reader views these changes as the development of these characters. Read the political viewpoints of both those in the North and the South. You, as the reader, decide which perspective falls in line with your understanding and beliefs of the war. When you complete the reading of this novel, will you see the American Civil War as either the "Great Southern Rebellion" or the "Resistance to Oppressive Usurpation?" Fire in the Meadow speaks to the horrors of civil war and the sacrifices made by those on each side. The story culminates with the failed attack at Cold Harbor, wherein the Union Army sustained seven thousand casualties in minutes, causing General Grant to regret having ever ordered it. The book addresses the inhumane aspects of slavery and its justification of protecting its "African Violets." To understand slavery, the author confronts its many arguments, and how this "peculiar institution" affected the people who lived it, and even those who did not. You will be surprised by the book's conclusion. JS Oakes spent most his professional career in the financial services industry, and always had a fascination for the lessons of history. This broad look at personal stories of the American Civil War is his first novel.