Dog Tags: Divided We Fall

Dog Tags Divided We fall

By: C Alexander London

            Dog Tags, one of my favorite series, is a series that talks about war, and how one can use a dog to his advantage. The book itself, Dog Tags Divided We Fall, focuses on a Southern family, during the horrific Civil War. I personally didn’t like how the book started, but as I read on, I started to enjoy the book. It is a story about War, loyalty, family ties, and betrayal. It focuses both, good and bad things about the Union and Confederacy.

            Andrew, a young teenager, and Dash, his older brother’s dog, are chasing down a man. However, he is not a slave or apart of the Union Army. He was a deserter; someone who left the Army before their term was done. Anyway, Dash finds the man’s scent and runs off after him, Andrew following close behind. They get to an old rundown shack. Then, Andrew starts calling out the deserter, “Come on out!” He waits a minute and then, like the idiot some people were and are, goes into the cabin to find the man.

            In a blink of an eye he gets grabbed by a strong hairy arm, “Don’t you move, or I’ll snap your neck.” Andrew, being as young as he is, calls Dash, and yells for the other hunters, that were hunting that deserter. The man then tells Andrew to call of his dog, and Andrew quickly does. The man starts asking question like, “What’s your name?” However, about a minute later, the man gets shot and Dash jumps on the deserter and bites him hard, right on his neck. Andrew calls off Dash as one of Andrew’s fellow hunters, Winslow, walks up to the man.

            The man starts telling them how war isn’t how it sounds, but right in the middle of his sentence… Winslow shoots the deserter in between the eyes. Andrew is terrified of what he just witnessed. Winslow then turns to Andrew and says, “He woulda been hung as a deserter anyhow, I just saved the judge some time.”

            Later, when Andrew and Dash return home, they find out Julius, Andrew’s older brother is going to war against the “Yanks,” what the Southerners called the Union at the time. A couple days pass, the family says goodbye to Julius, and Julius tells Andrew to take good care of Dash. After Julius fights his first battle against the Yanks, he begins to send letters to each person in the family describing battles, answering questions, etc. However, when Andrew gets his letter, Julius asks him about a girl named Mary, who moved away when the war broke out, to see if she asked about him. Andrew does not know how to explain things to Julius, because Mary hasn’t even talked to them, so he doesn’t say anything in his letter to Julius.

            Julius keeps asking about Mary, and Julius keeps leaving her out; avoiding the question. Eventually, Julius stops sending letters, and the family gets word that he’s missing. The family, as shocked as they are, continues with their lives. Later, Andrew and Dash, while looking for deserters, find a runaway slave girl. However, he takes pity on her, tips her off, and lets her go. Now that Andrew feels shame, he decides to go look for Julius in the hope that he’s not dead.

            Sadly during his short search time, the Yanks attack and destroy his whole town. Andrew’s mother and father now make a drastic decision to let Andrew, and Dash, continue their search for Julius, while they go stay with their cousin, but there’s a catch. If Andrew can’t find his brother within a week’s time, he must head to their cousin’s, even if he has a lead to Julius.

            The book is a very thrilling and exotic quest. Andrew will have to go through many “trials” to find Julius and his adventure will take him across both, Union and confederate grounds. He will meet, and make, many friends on the way. Andrew and Dash must find Julius, or they may not have a full family ever again.