North and South (novel)
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North and South, is a 1982 novel written by John Jakes. It is the first part of the North and South trilogy. The next book Jakes wrote was Love and War.
[edit] Plot summary
The book starts with two young men, George Hazard from Pennsylvania, and Orry Main from South Carolina, meeting on their way to West Point Military Academy. They soon become close friends. But from time to time they have to face a problem coming from one big difference between them. One is from the South, and the other from the North. During their time attending West Point, Orry and George meet up with a rather crude cadet named Elkanah Bent from the state of Ohio, who constantly torments the two companions. In time, Orry, George, and a couple other cadets make a successful plan to have Bent expelled from West Point. Eventually, Orry and George graduate from West Point and become officers in the United States Army during the Mexican War. During the Mexican War, Orry and George were drafted with the U.S. forces in Mexico. They end up in the Battle of Vera Cruz, where Orry is badly wounded in the arm. While in the hospital, the arm had to amputated. Orry is sent home after Vera Cruz, but George stays instead. While in Mexico, he courts a young Irish woman named Constance, the daughter of the surgeon that saved Orry's life. George and Constance return to George's home in Pennsylvania and marry. George and Orry eventually meet up again and resume their friendship as tensions strengthen between the North and South. Soon, Orry's sister Brett falls in love with George's brother Billy. The two become quite aquainted. In 1858, Brett begs Orry to take her to Pennsylvania to see Billy again. On the train back to South Carolina, the train is stopped by raiders under the command of the radical abolitionist, John Brown at the town of Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, then part of the state of Virginia. Brett and Orry are not harmed by John Brown's men at all, and are sent on their way to Pennsylvania. Two years after the Mains and the Hazards rendezvous in Pennsylvania, Billy joins the U.S. Army in 1861 as the American Civil War draws near. Billy ironically is stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, only a few miles away from the Mains' plantation. In a twist of fate, he is stationed in Major Robert Anderson's garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Billy is given time off from his duty at the fort and marries Brett late one night. That same night, Confederate forces under the command of Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Fort Sumter, setting off the Civil War. So, Orry and George say their final good-bye before the war, hoping for the best for each other.
