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Rifles for Watie

Harold Keith

3.92 · Rating details · 9,881 ratings · 513 reviews

Jeff Bussey walked briskly up the rutted wagon road toward Fort Leavenworth on his way to join the Union volunteers. It was 1861 in Linn County, Kansas, and Jeff was elated at the prospect of fighting for the North at last.

In the Indian country south of Kansas there was dread in the air; and the name, Stand Watie, was on every tongue. A hero to the rebel, a devil to the Un Jeff Bussey walked briskly up the rutted wagon road toward Fort Leavenworth on his way to join the Union volunteers. It was 1861 in Linn County, Kansas, and Jeff was elated at the prospect of fighting for the North at last.

In the Indian country south of Kansas there was dread in the air; and the name, Stand Watie, was on every tongue. A hero to the rebel, a devil to the Union man, Stand Watie led the Cherokee Indian Nation fearlessly and successfully on savage raids behind the Union lines. Jeff came to know the Watie men only too well.

He was probably the only soldier in the West to see the Civil War from both sides and live to tell about it. Amid the roar of cannon and the swish of flying grape, Jeff learned what it meant to fight in battle. He learned how it felt never to have enough to eat, to forage for his food or starve. He saw the green fields of Kansas and Okla-homa laid waste by Watie's raiding parties, homes gutted, precious corn deliberately uprooted. He marched endlessly across parched, hot land, through mud and slashing rain, always hungry, always dirty and dog-tired.

And, Jeff, plain-spoken and honest, made friends and enemies. The friends were strong men like Noah Babbitt, the itinerant printer who once walked from Topeka to Galveston to see the magnolias in bloom; boys like Jimmy Lear, too young to carry a gun but old enough to give up his life at Cane Hill; ugly, big-eared Heifer, who made the best sourdough biscuits in the Choctaw country; and beautiful Lucy Washbourne, rebel to the marrow and proud of it. The enemies were men of another breed - hard-bitten Captain Clardy for one, a cruel officer with hatred for Jeff in his eyes and a dark secret on his soul.

This is a rich and sweeping novel-rich in its panorama of history; in its details so clear that the reader never doubts for a moment that he is there; in its dozens of different people, each one fully realized and wholly recognizable. It is a story of a lesser -- known part of the Civil War, the Western campaign, a part different in its issues and its problems, and fought with a different savagery. Inexorably it moves to a dramatic climax, evoking a brilliant picture of a war and the men of both sides who fought in it. ...more

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Paperback, 352 pages

Published September 25th 1987 by HarperTeen (first published 1957)

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· 9,881 ratings · 513 reviews

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Jun 05, 2010 Joan rated it really liked it

Q. Why didn’t I read this in junior high?
Q. Why didn’t my teachers make it mandatory?
Q. Why did I ever read anything out of a text book about the civil war?

Rifles for Watie taught me more about the civil war than any junior high American History book I ever endured. If I were teaching Junior High history this would be MANDATORY. It was exciting and not biased. The author did a remarkable job of showing the good and bad sides of both the Union and Confederate Armies. The protagonist Jeff Bussey w ...more

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Jan 02, 2009 Ed rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: historical novel fans/Civil War history buffs

Recommended to Ed by: Reread

I recalled once reading Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith when I was a kid probably over my summer vacation. I believed I had enjoyed the experience, so I decided to have another go at it now and hope the historical novel written for teens still holds up. I am happy to report Rifles for Watie still turns my crank. The author Keith had a wonderful knack for turning descriptive phrases of the landscape, battle scenes, and soldiers' camp life. His protagonist of Jeff Bussey from Linn County, Kansas, ...more

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Nov 19, 2009 Valerie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Valerie by: Cara

Shelves: historical-fiction, favorites, male-protagonist

There are few reasons why I wanted to read this book. One, it was highly recommended to me by my sister. Two, is historical fiction (about the civil war). And three, it is based in the mid-west which is mostly ignored during the civil war, except when they mention "Bloody Kansas" for one paragraph in the textbooks. It was a bit long and it took me a while to read but it was well worth it.

Hoping to prove himself and defend his home Jeff leaves to enlist as a soldier in the Union Army. He has thi ...more

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Apr 03, 2017 Luisa Knight rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, own, civil-war, historical-fiction, newbery-medal-honor

Cleanliness

Children's Bad Words
Mild Obscenities - 50 Incidents: corn, by jack, shut up, jeepers, darn, darned, dad-gummed, cripes, shucks, stupid, shoot, dang, gosh, gallinippers, heck, h*ll (once)
Name Calling - 21 Incidents: chronic croakers, Free State scum, n*ggers (three times), dom (dumb), big lout, fool, Yankee swine, Yankee liar, foot-sloggers, Buttermilk Rangers, crazy dumb, cowardly swine, stupid, bugger, gray devils, bl**dy-minded shikepokes
Scatological Terms - 7 Incidents: bl**dy (as ...more

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Apr 28, 2015 Benji Martin rated it liked it

First, let me say that I get what is good about this book. It's unique. There aren't many decent children's books out there that follow a young soldier around through the entire Civil War, and the ones that do exist are all set in the eastern part of the U.S. I didn't know much about what was going on in the west during the Civil War before I read this book. Most of the scholarship or fiction I've been exposed to has all been focused on the other part of the country.

For it's length, it's a very First, let me say that I get what is good about this book. It's unique. There aren't many decent children's books out there that follow a young soldier around through the entire Civil War, and the ones that do exist are all set in the eastern part of the U.S. I didn't know much about what was going on in the west during the Civil War before I read this book. Most of the scholarship or fiction I've been exposed to has all been focused on the other part of the country.

For it's length, it's a very readable, usually exciting novel. Part of me wishes it was shorter, but in all honesty, it would have been better served by being longer. It wraps up very abruptly and it feels very rushed. The villain of the novel, Clardy, is killed off-screen, and we are denied a big confrontation. The whole ending just seemed really anti-climatic, but maybe that's the way war really is? You fight and march, and everything's all build up and then suddenly it's all over. I don't know. It didn't make for a great novel ending, though.

Now let's play a quick game of Is It Racist? I think there is a definite difference between a racist character and a racist author/omniscient narrator. I'm OK with a racist character existing. There are racist people out there, and of course, they're going to find their way into stories. I have more of a problem when the author or the omniscient narrator is blatantly racist. Let's examine the scenes in Rifles for Watie that made me cringe, and see whether they are reflections of the author's own racism or of they are simply racist characters in a time when the country was very racially charged.

The first scene that made me cringe was when Jeff first meets Lucy, his Confederate love interest. She is half-Cherokee, and according to our narrator, very beautiful. Jeff too, finds her beautiful "even though her skin had a brownish cast." My first reaction to that statement was, "What does that even mean?" The answer of course is that Jeff's ideal of a beauty up until that point was a fair-skinned very Caucasian girl. Lucy was so beautiful that it redefined Jeff's definition of beauty. My first inclination is to say that this is simply character racism. After all, it's Jeff's prejudices that we're dealing with here, but after thinking about it, I changed my mind. The narrator says it in such a matter-of-course way. It's like "Of course dark-skinned ladies aren't usually beautiful, but this girl was REALLY beautiful." That nonchalance makes me think that it's really Harold Keith's prejudices that we're dealing with.

Then there's the dialect. The African-American slaves that the Union soldiers come across nearly always speak like they do on page 150. "Yassuh! Yassuh! Plenty of hams in theah, suh." The Union soldiers don't really talk with much dialect throughout the book, even though they're all farmers from Kansas. I was ready to give Harold Keith another racist stamp for it, but then we meet the White Confederate soldiers, and they all speak with that dumb, exaggerated dialect, too. So, I really think that, to Harold Keith, Americans from the west spoke in a kind of normal dialect. A few contractions here and there, but usually complete, coherent sentences. The moment you cross the Mason-Dixon line and enter the South, everyone, white and black, speaks in a kind of jumbled up, nonsensical manner. In this case, Harold Keith wasn't racist, only regionalist. If he looked down on anyone for the way he thought they talked, it was the South as a whole.

The last scene I want to look at is on page 155. There is a dying slave literally on his death bed. He is holding on to life, so that he can see a Union soldier coming to liberate his people before he dies. Jeff walks into the room, and the man takes a look at his blue uniform, and says, "I bress God." and dies. (Bress. Really?) I call this a white messiah moment. I think that Harold Keith saw his ancestors that served in the civil war as liberators coming in to save the slaves, even though there were men of many races serving on the union side. The whole scene just seemed really condescending to me, and I think the novel would have been better without it.
In the end, yeah. I think Harold Keith was a little bit racist.It isn't overwhelming, but I do think he had some prejudices that came out in his novel.

I liked Rifles for Watie, but I didn't love it. The main issue for me was the anti-climatic feeling I got from the abrupt ending. The uncomfortable feeling I got from those few scenes spoiled it some, too. ...more

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Nov 01, 2017 Kellyn Roth rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-for-school, books-for-teens, adventurous-books, books-for-children, historical-fiction

Okay, that was cool. :) Might review it further later.

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Aug 14, 2020 Carol Storm rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I loved this book! It reminded me of Sunday nights watching THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY fifty years ago. If Walt Disney had ever made an epic movie of the Civil War that was kid friendly but still crammed with unbelievable danger, action, and romance, this would be that book. I loved everything about it, not just the battle scenes but the scenes of camp life and even the fascinating information about hunting, tracking, and cooking in frontier days!

Jeff Bussey is the hero, and he is a really sp I loved this book! It reminded me of Sunday nights watching THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY fifty years ago. If Walt Disney had ever made an epic movie of the Civil War that was kid friendly but still crammed with unbelievable danger, action, and romance, this would be that book. I loved everything about it, not just the battle scenes but the scenes of camp life and even the fascinating information about hunting, tracking, and cooking in frontier days!

Jeff Bussey is the hero, and he is a really special kid. He's brave, loyal, little but brave, and crazy about dogs and horses. He lives in Kansas and he's really concerned about protecting his family from pro slavery raiders, so he joins the Union Army. But in the course of the book he goes from being Union infantry, to Union cavalry, to being a spy, to being a Confederate soldier!

One thing about this book that really bothered me was that it was so episodic. For the first half of the book every chapter is almost like a short story all to itself. The author introduces all kinds of amazing and colorful characters, but they come and go like the colors in a kaleidoscope! I really wanted to see more of Noah Babbitt, the self-educated Yankee scholar who plays Rick Sanchez to Jeff's Morty. I also wanted to see more of Jeff's love interest Lucy, who was the most alluring love interest I've ever seen in a YA novel. She was one part Indian princess and one part Southern Belle, and yet you could totally believe she would be attracted to a simple, straightforward guy like Jeff. I even felt like Clardy, the villain, was so intriguing that I would have liked to see more of him. He reminded me of Claggart in Melville's Billy Budd, except Jeff is much smarter than Billy and has better friends. Especially of the four-legged variety!

Nothing could have spoiled my enjoyment of this amazing YA classic, but I wish there had been a little more about what slavery was like for black people, and how they felt about the war. The author says about a thousand times that the Southern people are "fighting for what they believe in" but he never connects that to the real-life atrocities that slaves endured on a daily basis, or to the selfishness and greed of the slave-owners themselves. And given that most of the slave-owners in this book are actually Native Americans, it's especially disappointing that Jeff never notices the irony of one colored race enslaving another one. He argues with Lucy about preserving the Union, but he never says "a people that have sunk low enough to enslave black men will certainly enslave red men sooner or later." That's what I would have said, but I enjoyed the book thoroughly and I was with Jefferson Davis Bussey every step of the way. If you read this book you will probably feel the same way! ...more

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Aug 12, 2009 Terence rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: YA Civil War fiction

Shelves: historical-fiction

A sentimental 4 stars: Rifles for Watie was one of my favorite books when I was young; I don't know how many times I checked it out of the library.

I was pleasantly reminded of it (and another sentimental favorite, The Horse Soldiers) while reading David Donald's Lincoln. I can still remember specific scenes from the book like Jeff's first battle, loading a rifle, the night he spends in a rebel's house, using worthless Confederate dollars to cut out a piece of bread.

Both books have joined the lis ...more

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Jul 05, 2018 BookBec rated it it was ok

Shelves: newbery

Gosh, Jeff sure was a good guy!
Corn, but Lucy sure was a purty girl!

Too long, with too much of the author's research showing.
Too simplified, with the army men's language and behavior toned down for middle graders.
Too tidy, with people and character traits recurring to tie things up neatly at the end.
Plus all those womenfolks who couldn't plant corn in a straight line, and all those slaves who just loved their masters. ...more

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Jun 28, 2018 Brian rated it it was amazing

Exceptional Civil War story focused on the West and with authentic empathy for a variety of perspectives of the war. Highly recommended for young readers especially.

The Audible.com audiobook is breathtakingly well done.

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Jun 22, 2014 Phil Jensen rated it it was amazing

One child out of a hundred will love this book above all others. The other 99 won't make it through the first chapter. Although I already knew an awful lot about the Civil War, I learned a little from this book. More importantly, the way the main character was written gave me a new perspective on what I already knew. I was also glad that Keith didn't wimp out on the action, and described it with realism. I think he had me after first mention of lice.

This is very well written. In fact, it's proba One child out of a hundred will love this book above all others. The other 99 won't make it through the first chapter. Although I already knew an awful lot about the Civil War, I learned a little from this book. More importantly, the way the main character was written gave me a new perspective on what I already knew. I was also glad that Keith didn't wimp out on the action, and described it with realism. I think he had me after first mention of lice.

This is very well written. In fact, it's probably the first Newbery winner that's written professionally enough for an adult audience, and not just well enough for the kids. The most conspicuous aspect of the book is the impeccable research that went into it and the way that historical and geographical details are seamlessly woven in to strengthen the narrative. The book is action-packed, and Keith's characters feel like real people.

Any Newbery winner before 1970 requires a diversity inspection. Rifles for Watie holds up remarkably well on this front. Although the first Cherokee character speaks with some stereotypical Tonto grammar, that impression is quickly erased by the variety of carefully drawn Creek, Cherokee, and Choctaw characters. Howard Keith spent considerable time interviewing Cherokees for this book, and it pays off with depictions of realistic people living on many different levels of Cherokee society. In fact, the Tonto grammar is probably based on the speech of someone he interviewed.

The portrayal of African Americans is more mixed. Although there are a number of these characters, and they present a variety of personalities and attitudes, they all speak with servile "Yassuh, yassuh," slave jargon. I have no doubt that most Southern blacks spoke this way in the 1800s, and that some still spoke this way when this novel was written. Although Keith makes an effort to describe the slave/master social system, he doesn't do it with nearly the thoroughness that he applies to Cherokee society. The result does not fully explain why African Americans spoke that way in the first place. I also wish that Keith's physical descriptions didn't focus quite so much on rolling, bugged-out eyes.

As a side note, the "n" word gets used a few times in ways that I would describe as historically accurate and appropriate to the sophistication of the rest of the book. A reader who understands the rest of the book will understand that this word is a reflection on the character using it, and not on the author's personal vocabulary.

I enjoyed this book so much that I want to find someone to share it with. I think the right audience for this would be a young man in at least 5th grade who loves action and history and is not intimidated by a 300+ page book. ...more

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Jan 01, 2019 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing

Shelves: physical-books

Book synopsis:

Jeff Bussey walked briskly up the rutted wagon road toward Fort Leavenworth on his way to join the Union volunteers. It was 1861 in Linn County, Kansas, and Jeff was elated at the prospect of fighting for the North at last.

In the Indian country south of Kansas there was dread in the air; and the name, Stand Watie, was on every tongue. A hero to the rebel, a devil to the Union man, Stand Watie led the Cherokee Indian Na-tion fearlessly and successfully on savage raids behind the Uni Book synopsis:

Jeff Bussey walked briskly up the rutted wagon road toward Fort Leavenworth on his way to join the Union volunteers. It was 1861 in Linn County, Kansas, and Jeff was elated at the prospect of fighting for the North at last.

In the Indian country south of Kansas there was dread in the air; and the name, Stand Watie, was on every tongue. A hero to the rebel, a devil to the Union man, Stand Watie led the Cherokee Indian Na-tion fearlessly and successfully on savage raids behind the Union lines. Jeff came to know the Watie men only too well.

He was probably the only soldier in the West to see the Civil War from both sides and live to tell about it. Amid the roar of cannon and the swish of flying grape, Jeff learned what it meant to fight in battle. He learned how it felt never to have enough to eat, to forage for his food or starve. He saw the green fields of Kansas and Okla-homa laid waste by Watie's raiding parties, homes gutted, precious corn deliberately uprooted. He marched endlessly across parched, hot land, through mud and slash-ing rain, always hungry, always dirty and dog-tired.

And, Jeff, plain-spoken and honest, made friends and enemies. The friends were strong men like Noah Babbitt, the itinerant printer who once walked from Topeka to Galveston to see the magnolias in bloom; boys like Jimmy Lear, too young to carry a gun but old enough to give up his life at Cane Hill; ugly, big-eared Heifer, who made the best sourdough biscuits in the Choctaw country; and beautiful Lucy Washbourne, rebel to the marrow and proud of it. The enemies were men of an-other breed - hard-bitten Captain Clardy for one, a cruel officer with hatred for Jeff in his eyes and a dark secret on his soul.

My thoughts :
I had forgotten how this book made me feel while I was reading it since its been forever since I read it , in fact the last time I actually read it was way back in Junior High school , and since then I've been looking for it to buy , and I'm so glad I was able to find it on line to buy . I had also forgot that there was parts of this book that made me cry and believe me it takes a lot for a book to make me cry, the author was able to bring to live Jeff and his family , and his fellow solders that he meet , as well as bring to live the battles and how hard it was for both sides . I can say that this is still one of my all time favorite books to read and if you haven't checked it out then you might want to . ...more

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Dec 16, 2018 Michael Fitzgerald rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Long but worthwhile, this story has many twists and turns, and although readers certainly know how the war will play out on the large scale, there is a good deal of suspense regarding individual characters. The details of place, characterizations, dialogue, etc. are first rate, making this stand out from more generic juvenile historical fiction set during the Civil War.

The author manages to deliver a good deal of history and through interesting juxtapositions of the protagonist is able to conve ...more

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Jul 15, 2015 Nicole Palumbo Davies rated it did not like it

Shelves: young-adult, historical-fiction, newbery-winners

This won a Newbery? Maybe in 1957, this was innovative (big maybe), but there are no surprises and nothing to say about war, aside from it's dirty and even your enemies are human, which was not news to me. The main character and his simple-minded friends think war will be great fun and are shocked - shocked, I tell you - to discover that it's a lot more boring and bloody than their childish imaginings. The protagonist is saddled with the name Jefferson Davis Bussey. The supposed irony is that he ...more

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Feb 05, 2021 Joe rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, young-adult, newbery-medal

The mere fact that it took me two weeks to read this snoozefest tells you everything you need to know.

I am not the reader for this book. When I was in high school, I loathed The Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front, so I clearly have a distaste for "combat-centered" books. I find it all terrifically dull - the marching, the strategizing, the riding around on horses. All of it. So boring. So, so, so boring.

At one point, Jeff (the protagonist, who in any given paragraph seems ei ...more

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Dec 08, 2018 Cheryl marked it as xx-dnf-skim-reference

Anyway, Keith's acceptance speech isn't that interesting. He speaks of his background as sports publicity director for U. of OK as not being helpful, but as writing workshops teaching him the strategies of putting together a successful story.

There and in the introduction in the book itself he speaks of all the interviews he did with the aged veterans of the war. So, yes, the details of how the boys dealt with being soldiers, etc., do ring true.

However.
In the introduction he admits that the nove ...more

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Mar 24, 2019 Sara rated it liked it

Read this years ago and recall liking it.

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Nov 27, 2018 Kerstin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: children-and-young-adult, historical-fiction, 19th-century

Newbery Winner 1958

This is an exceptionally well written novel. It is the story of a 16-year-old farmer's boy who joins the Union Army after his family survives a brush with Missourian Bushwackers. In preparing for this novel Harold Keith had done an enormous amount of research and even interviewed veterans of the Civil War in the 1940s. In an effortless style he weaves into the narrative a tremendous amount of historical detail. The story is also very realistic in its depictions of the hardship ...more

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Nov 11, 2018 Jennifer (JenIsNotaBookSnob) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: newbery-winners, 2018juvenilefiction

Hooray! I'm finally done with this book!

Anyhow, it actually did move along nicely and turn into an interesting book about midway through. I'm glad I put it down months ago and picked it up again a few days ago when I was ready to finally read another civil war era book. It's got some issues in it, like the N word. It's not as prejudiced against Native Americans as one would assume from the cover. In fact, it points out that many Cherokees owned large plantations and homes and were actually assi ...more

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Mar 31, 2011 Jill rated it it was ok

Shelves: newbery-medal

Good story, but long-winded. I think someone who has an interest in historical fiction would find this story more engaging than I did. I did find it interesting to learn about portions of the Civil War that I didn't even learn about it AP US History class. I'm almost embarrassed to admit I didn't even know the war extended into Kansas.

"Weer's Union army didn't stay long in the Cherokee nation. The weather continued hot, the grass burned to a crisp, and the supply train from Kansas was long over ...more

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May 22, 2016 Marcus Anderson rated it did not like it

When Rifles for Watie was dumped on my junior high school desk in 1971 I didn't get past the title before deciding I was not going to read this book.

The previous year was the height of the Vietnam war and after seeing the televised execution of a handcuffed prisoner only 12 months earlier, aged 11, I had already decided I wanted to have nothing to do with war, let alone supporting Australia's involvement in a fabricated offensive against a neighboring country at the direction of the USA, neithe When Rifles for Watie was dumped on my junior high school desk in 1971 I didn't get past the title before deciding I was not going to read this book.

The previous year was the height of the Vietnam war and after seeing the televised execution of a handcuffed prisoner only 12 months earlier, aged 11, I had already decided I wanted to have nothing to do with war, let alone supporting Australia's involvement in a fabricated offensive against a neighboring country at the direction of the USA, neither of which were under threat from Vietnam. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGrsw...)

"Rifles? You want me to read about rifles? For who? What-ee? What-i ? Wah-tie? How do you say that? Who calls anyone a name like than anyhow? And woa - how heavy is this thing? Huh? American civil war? Get outta here? No way. Why would any self respecting Australian youth read this rubbish."

And so I didn't. Not a jot. The title alone was so repulsive to me I didn't even open it let alone to page one. The cost of this work of trash sickened me even more so. And when the book review assignment came around I did nothing more than skim the back cover, and make it all up from there.

When the English teacher handed back my paper he looked at me with dismay and asked "Did you read any of it?", to which I unashamedly answered, "Nope".

Now, 45 years late, I've decided to do my honest book review assignment, and here it is.

I still find this book's title just as repulsive today as I did back then. I've rarely come across anything so blatantly insulting to my intelligence that I felt able to confidently rejected it immediately. Why? The cultural cringe to American authors over Australian ones goes without saying. But what is certain is that this book was written to target American school kids for the crass purpose of pandering to the lucrative schools market. It even won an award for being so purile it just HAD to be what every parent would think their kid would love to read, and instantly giving it ABSOLUTE ZERO appeal to the intelligence of any self respecting Australian kid.

Inflicting Rifles for Watie on Australian students either reflects the complete stupidity of the teachers who set the curriculum, or their temerity in promoting war propaganda in schools to groom youth for battle in Vietnam. Its nauseating crap, and I didn't even have to read anything more than the title before wanting to throw up. And it sickens me to this day.
...more

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Apr 10, 2020 Vel Veeter rated it it was amazing

This is one of those books that I cannot honestly rate because I’ve read it two dozen times, and first read it in fourth grade. I loved it then, and I love it now, and it’s too close to my reading heart to rate it honestly. So anyway, five stars.

I was assigned this book in fourth grade, and it’s the first book that I opened, read two or three sentences and got super intimidated and put aside. A friend of mine told me he really liked it, so I powered forward, and ended up loving it. My personal c This is one of those books that I cannot honestly rate because I’ve read it two dozen times, and first read it in fourth grade. I loved it then, and I love it now, and it’s too close to my reading heart to rate it honestly. So anyway, five stars.

I was assigned this book in fourth grade, and it’s the first book that I opened, read two or three sentences and got super intimidated and put aside. A friend of mine told me he really liked it, so I powered forward, and ended up loving it. My personal copy is one I stole from my 9th grade English teacher. I think I might have borrowed it and forgot to give it back, but I can’t swear to that. As an English teacher now, and on her behalf, I forgive myself.

So the novel takes place first in Kansas in 1861, when Jeff(erson Davis) Bussey is working on his family farm when Missouri bushwhackers show up and hold his family at gunpoint. Every fights the pair off, and this incident impels Jeff to leave home to join the Union army. He grabs a couple of his friends along the way. We see him through training and marching, early skirmishes and his first battle. He has run-ins with corrupt officers, gets punished for standing up to bullying, and sees friends and colleagues killed. He also falls in love with a half-Cherokee girl named Lucy, who lives with her family in the Indian Territory of Talequah (now in Oklahoma), and who supports the Confederacy. He’s moved to the cavalry, and then the scouts, and finally the spies. He’s caught across enemy lines and gets conscripted into the very rebel fighting unit that has been terrorizing the countryside, Watie’s Raiders.

Here he learns not to love the Confederacy, but to understand it, and to love some of the people who fight for it and support it. When he’s presented with vital information regarding upcoming battles, he faces the choice to stay or go.

For the most part, this novel tries to be fair-minded. It doesn’t allow the Confederacy to promote the “lost cause” nonsense, but it does remind everyone of their humanity. It’s not a perfect portrayal, but it’s a solid work for kids, though the casual use of the n-word and a few other moments, means it requires some context-building. ...more

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Feb 21, 2017 Juli Anna rated it it was ok

Shelves: newbery-challenge, kidlit

This one took me forever! I really dragged my feet at the prospect of yet another Newbery about a boy who fantasizes about the glorious, manly game of shooting things with guns. How many novels can one society write about the disillusionment of war? Not interesting anymore. And, frankly, at least as far as writing style goes, this book was really boring. Keith has an odd habit of skipping days or even months at a time between chapters without telling you he's done it, and the first 3/4 of the bo ...more

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Aug 16, 2017 Booky_Wookiee rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: historical

2.5 rating.
Felt very textbook-ish in parts and even had a couple small historical errors. It wasn't that interesting. There was a lot of information and a lot of 'three months later' 'the next week' etc. and one particular sentence that was kind of ridiculous..."the shape of the cook's head was not unlike that if a full-grown female calf." Apparently the author is not wise in the ways of animals because a calf is a baby cow. A full-grown calf is biologically impossible.
Wasn't that good of a boo ...more

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Apr 17, 2018 Molly rated it really liked it

Good Civil War novel! I admit I didn't care for it at first but the story went on and it got better. ...more

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Sep 16, 2018 Erin O'Connor {If The Review Fits} rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-favorite-shelf

If you are a fanatic about Civil War I recommend this book. If you are guy I recommend this book. It was so well written and really hits on some great parts in our history.

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Jun 23, 2020 Lorena rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adventure, coming-of-age, award-winner, historical, young-adult, boys, civil-war, buy-personal-library

Relying on first-hand interviews of Civil War veterans from his master's thesis, Harold Keith wove a beautiful story about a young man named Jefferson Davis Bussey who enlisted with the Union at age 16.

I love, love, LOVED this book! It has been my constant companion the past few days so I could read it during every spare moment. A lot of Newberys tend to focus on coming-of-age stories. And while Mr. Bussey definitely grew up over the course of the war (and the book), he was much older than I us ...more

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Nov 05, 2019 Jane rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019, award-winners, newbery-books, historical-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book was not what I expected and I loved that.

Set in the western front of the US Civil War, Rifles for Watie is a fascinating look at a single soldier (Jefferson Davis Bussey) and his experiences on the war front.

Things I enjoyed/was fascinated by:
*Varying reasons for going to war. In school, we learn that everyone was at war because of slavery but it was so much more complex than that. Bushwhackers where terrorizing people that thought differently then them--stealing, hurting, and even ki This book was not what I expected and I loved that.

Set in the western front of the US Civil War, Rifles for Watie is a fascinating look at a single soldier (Jefferson Davis Bussey) and his experiences on the war front.

Things I enjoyed/was fascinated by:
*Varying reasons for going to war. In school, we learn that everyone was at war because of slavery but it was so much more complex than that. Bushwhackers where terrorizing people that thought differently then them--stealing, hurting, and even killing others. Then people want freedom of choice and their land and to keep their families safe.
*Contrast between life in teh Union camps versus the Confederate camps. So interesting to see how well Jeff is treated when he is sick behind enemy lines and the relationships he builds there
*Jeff's romance with Lucy. I love the evolution of their relationship and the way they respect each other and their passions and reasons for going to war. Really mature overall.
*Day to day life as a union soldier and the realities of battle. I really haven't read much about this time period and was fascinated by the young soldier and his excitement for battle. Then his disappointment as he must wait to actually experience something that isn't what he expects. Interesting to see solider interactions, shortages of supplies, raiding for food nearby, how quickly things change and how unexpected death is even in a war.
*Jeff's progression as a character. He is so innocent and looking forward to the glory of war at the start, and then he experiences loss, hunger, fatigue, false accusations, and even spying. He develops relationships with people on both sides of the fight. And they change him. But through it all, he remains a loyal, hard working, good person. And I admired him.

A few qualms:
*The summary on the cover of my library copy of the book was misleading. I thought Jeff would be spying a lot sooner on the confederates. That's not until at least 2/3rds thru the book. The anticipation was a bit distracting at times.
*How can Claucey get away with so much murder and intrigue before finally being brought to justice?!
*Jeff's final race to the fort when he is nearly caught, starved to death and collapses of fatigue is intense. And I just wonder how realistic. The dog just decides to be his friend? It was a bit silly closure to a very intense set of scenes. Of course, I'm glad he survived and is able to help the Union but I didn't love that twist.

Overall, a fascinating novel. Well deserved Newbery with compelling themes and complex characters. ...more

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Aug 24, 2018 Phoebe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1860s, civil-war, ya, historical-19th-century

Newbery books are a special breed, and this oldie-but-goodie rings true. Beautiful writing that nonetheless is accessible and down to earth enough for junior high readers carries an exciting story of the Civil War seen through the eyes of a 16 year old Kansas boy. Jeff Bussey is an appealing protagonist, a courageous, sensible teenage boy eager to join the Union efforts and gain battle experience. He has no idea what unusual paths his life will take over the next four years. This makes quite a t ...more

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Jan 19, 2019 Falina rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018-newbery-challenge

I liked this much more than I would have expected to. I'm not a history buff and don't have much interest in American history, but once I got all the terminology straight I was hooked. Keith's portrayal of war and death are dark and meaningful without being "too much" for older children. Jeff is a great character and his coming-of-age progression is complex and well done. I loved his integrity and his understanding and sympathy for both sides by the end of the novel. And the last 50 or so pages ...more

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Children's Books: The Medal Winner from 1958 - Rifles for Watie - D&A December 2018	18	30	Dec 23, 2018 04:48AM
2017 Reading Chal...: Rifles for Watie	1	12	Jun 16, 2015 01:46PM
Rifles for Watie	3	17	Mar 21, 2014 10:07PM
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About Harold Keith

Harold Keith

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Harold Keith lived his entire life in Oklahoma, a state that he greatly loved and which served as the setting for many of his books.
Perhaps his best known story, the historical novel "Rifles for Watie", was first released in 1957. It went on to win the 1958 John Newbery Medal and the 1964 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.
In 1998, Harold Keith died of congestive heart failure, in Norman, Oklahoma. ...more