The Reb and the Redcoats by Constance Savery

My Impression: This is a charming story I would have enjoyed even more at 10. The children’s friendship helps Randal cope with imprisonment and leads to a better understanding with Laurence, although as soldiers on opposite sides, the reader then has to worry they will meet on the battlefield at Yorktown when they resume their duties. It turns out the doll belonged to Randal’s sister Patty, one of several coincidences that advance the plot.

He won’t give his parole not to escape because he feels responsible for a weaker friend. Randal “Reb” is just 15 but has broken free from prison several times and smuggled information to the French, to the chagrin of his captors. This makes him uncharitable to the young prisoner of war he has been asked to guard. The children learn he is devastated because his closest friend, Major John André, was executed by the Americans as a spy, not treated as an officer. The Darringtons’ uncle, Captain Laurence Templeton, who also recently returned from fighting in America where he was wounded, is now withdrawn and bitter, when the family travels 15 miles for an extended stay. When she realizes it was purloined from a rebel home in Virginia, she is distressed but her mother says to take care of the doll in case they can figure out a way to return it to its rightful owner. When Old Harry, the erstwhile gardener at Thorndale Hall, returns from fighting, he brings news of their father and gifts for all, including a beautiful doll for Charlotte Darrington. Description: The Reb is young Randal Everard Baltimore, an American prisoner of war, who encounters the Redcoats, the four Darringtons, children of a British officer fighting in the War of American Independence.

The Reb and the Redcoats by Constance Savery