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Civil War comes to New Orleans.
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Howard Leland Hutchings goes to visits his dad's side of the family. His "grandma" Tilly tells him and his younger twin brothers her story from when she was in the war. He went from St. Louis, Illinois to Grand Tower, Illinois. The name Grand Tower comes from the large rock that sticks out of the Mississippi River, Tower Rock.
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Tilly explained to Howard about Cass, Tilly's sister. She told him how she saw things. She had visions and could see the dead. She also claimed to see the Wedding Party. The story of the Wedding Party is that a couple got married on top of Tower Rock. On their way back from the rock, their boat got pulled by a current into a whirlpool and went under the water and was never seen again. Howard also learned about Noah, Tilly's twin brother.
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The next event that happened to Tilly was strange women came into Grand Tower. Their names were Delphine and Calinda. Noah was in love with Delphine. Delphine said that she was going to visit her aunt but the boat wouldn't take her because the boat wasn't going that far. They came from New Orleans were they said the war was going to come next.
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Once Calinda came, Cass was almost a different person. She didn’t have any time to mope or wine. She was happy. Cass would not leave Calinda’s side. Cass had also kind of been Calinda’s hand and foot, doing a lot of things for her.
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Tilly got a letter from Curry Marshall saying that he had gone off to war. Tilly never saw or heard from him again, but she was worried about Noah. She thought that maybe Noah would want to go to war even more now. He and the other boys always played soldier.
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Cass started following Calinda’s every move. It was like she wanted to be in her body some how. They had gotten to know each other and they started selling pralines to the boats that ran the upper Mississippi River. They had so much fun together.
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Delphine wanted to go tour the town. Tilly and Mama brought them in to town and it was like they were the most amazing thing the people in the town had every seen. Delphine went into the store in which Curry worked, the boy Tilly liked for a little bit. Delphine got the Pruitt’s house oil lamps, oil, and matches to light up the house.
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Mrs. T. W. Jenkins, Mrs. Manfred Cady, and Mrs. R. M. Breeze came to the Pruitt’s house asking to talk to Mrs. Pruitt. They wanted to talk to her about Delphine and Calinda. They were very suspicious of them. They all thought they were spies.
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People were Noah worked were saying that they were sending signals to the north through their window. Noah was very mad and Tilly had never seen him like that. Tilly didn’t know what to do because he was always quiet and didn’t say much so she knew something was wrong when she heard him kick at the front porch steps.
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Delphine and Calinda got Both Tilly and Cass ready for the special play they were going to. When Cass came out of their room, none of the family recognized her. Tilly said she looked extremely beautiful. Then Tilly got all beauty up, which she didn’t like, and looked gorgeous.
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The Pruitt’s along with Delphine and Calinda go to a boat play. There was a play involved and jokes and dancing. Noah asked Delphine to dance and Tilly was asked by Dr. Hutchings to dance. Calinda got up to dance and she was amazing. Where they came from she was the best dancer and you hadn’t lived to you had seen her dance. She dances to the song Calinda best that is how she got her name. Her real name was CoinCoin.
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Mama said Noah left for the war like a thief in the night. He stayed till the eve of their sixteenth birthday to leave for the war. He left without saying his goodbyes and mother couldn’t stand it without him.
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Noah goes to war.
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Tilly and Delphine go to Cairo to find Noah because Mama said she could spare Tilly but not Noah so she had to go get her. When they got there, Dr. Hutchings was there and was helping many injured and sick soldiers, one of which was Noah. Hey found out that he had trots. Delphine carried for all the other soldiers except Noah because she wanted him to be too sick to fight in the war. He got better and went back to the war, but lost his arm doing it.
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Noah, Tilly and Delphine come home and Mama is dead. Mama drowned herself because she thought the coffin sent to the house was Noah’s, and she couldn’t spare him. Tilly was more upset then any one because she did what her mother asked her, to leave and go find Noah and to not come back without him.
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Howard finds out that Delphine and Noah are his real grandparents. His dad also wants to follow in his dad’s footsteps and asks Howard for his approval to go to the war.
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The story had a happy ending. The family that was alive was still very much a family and still loved each other. We found out the Delphine and Calinda are sisters and that Tilly married Dr. Hutching, and that Delphine and Noah are truly in love but are not married.
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Lincoln was inaugurated the President of the United States of America. After taking his vows, he became he 16th president of the United States.
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Confederates forced the surrender of Fort Sumter but Union wouldn’t. Confederates opened fire at the fort and on April 13th, Union surrendered the fort.
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First major land battle of the American Civil War. Was in Virginia against the Confederates and the Union.
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Fought in Missouri. Troop leaders: Grant and Pillow. Grant was Union and they won and went bak to Cairo after meeting at the Mississippi River.
