A Young Civil War Scout in Army Days

Learning to serve as a scout

Stuart G. Yates’s Army Days follows Reuben Cole as a Union scout early in the American Civil War. The second Reuben Cole - The Early Years book places his developing skills alongside the pressures of military service. He is still learning what the work demands of him.

For readers interested in a young soldier’s changing identity, that role supplies a concrete focus. Cole must become useful in an army while learning how to survive. His education takes place during the conflict rather than in preparation for a distant future assignment.

Danger within the ranks

Cole is tasked with exposing a Confederate spy among Union personnel. That assignment turns attention toward people inside his own organization, adding espionage to a story whose setting includes Union assaults and the battle of Antietam.

His partnership with the abrasive Alvin Cairns brings another challenge. Cole needs to acquire skills from experience, including experience shared with a difficult companion. Working together makes the relationship part of his education, even when Cairns's manner gives him little reason to feel at ease.

A coming-of-age story in wartime

Love and personal change accompany Cole's development into a more seasoned soldier. Army Days ties that development to a specific job and investigation, giving him demands to meet before he can fully understand what the experience is doing to him. His work puts growing up inside the immediate pressures of military life.