Red Cap

Red Cap is a 1991 young adult historical novel by G. Clifton Wisler. The story, which is not based on a single person's biography, but was researched by Wisler, and drawn from the lives of several historical figures, follows the life of a young boy at the start of the American Civil War (1862). Ransom J. Powell is too young to enlist, so he lies about is age, anxious to follow in the footsteps of his older friends and contribute to a patriotic cause. The book concerns itself with the ramifications of Ransom's decision and the reality of war from the point of view of a young adolescent.

Ransom Powell has grown up in the Maryland town of Frostburg. Besides his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Powell, he has two sisters, Nancy and Mary, and a little brother, Jamie. His father has an apprentice, Johnny McDonald. At the start of the book, thirteen-year-old Ransom is a very small boy for his age – he is told he even looks too small to be twelve years old. He wants to join the army to become a drummer, but his parents forbid him because he is too young and too fragile. Several of his friends enlist, however, including the Perkins brothers, Pat and Enos, and his best friend, Ollie Williams, who is about the same age as Ransom, but “half a head taller.” Pat enlists with the Confederates and is killed at a battle in Culpeper, VA. Enos joins not long after and is killed, quite gruesomely – his head is blown off by a cannonball at Manassas, VA. Ollie asks Ransom to join the Confederates with him, but Ransom equivocates, because he wants to fight for the Yankees.

Eventually, Ransom decides he does, indeed, want to go to war for the Union side. He defies his parents, running away to Piedmont on the Maryland border, where he enlists in the Union Army by lying about his age, saying that he is fifteen. The officers are suspicious of his claims, but in the end, he talks his way in. Once in the army, he meets fourteen-year-old Danny, another drummer boy, who teaches him all the calls and introduces him to army life. They become fast friends.



Perhaps unsurprisingly for everyone but Ransom, war turns out to be a lot less heroic and lot more horrific in reality than in the abstract. Confederate rebels constantly beset the Union army when they pass through Winchester, West Virginia; the steep incline of Droop Mountain poses a problem, and the battle is difficult. Worse, Ransom's friend Danny is killed in battle, and Ransom has a hard time dealing with the loss. The reality of his situation begins to set in.

At the Battle of Moorefield Junction, Ransom is captured by rebel troops and transported by train to a Libby prison camp, in Andersonville. Also captured is Corporal Johnny Poland, who protects Ransom during their internment together. The wretched conditions of the prison camp bring Ransom to the breaking point; while there, he has to grapple with terrible conditions: the cold, the insect-laced rations, and the cruel treatment of the officers. One day, Louis arrives and asks Ransom to drum for the 26th Alabama brigade. Doing so, he is able to bring food back to his friends in return. The officer in charge of the stockade, Captain Wirz, employs Danny as his drummer, giving him more freedom than the other prisoners. However, after some of his escape maps are discovered, he loses his privilege and his put back in the stockade. By this time, only three members of his original company remain, including Johnny Poland. Not long after giving Ransom the nickname “Red Cap,” Johnny dies; his death is very hard for Ransom, who has now lost many people he was close to.

Ransom is finally saved when he is shipped off on a train headed south. The passengers on the train, captives like himself, are deboarded depending on where they can be locally put to work. At one point, Ransom lies about being a sailor at a town where sailors are needed; but when he later is asked who he shipped for previously, he confesses that he isn't actually a sailor. He is put back on a train, this time headed north, to reunite with his family in Maryland – his survival, against the backdrop of so many deaths, including those of his childhood friends, seems miraculous and bittersweet.



Red Cap is a good example of a relatively common subset of historical fiction that targets younger readers, using research-supported fiction to dramatize real-life historical events. Another well-known example would be Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes. Red Cap is more a recent example, but it has quickly become a canonical part of American historical young adult fiction.