The Crisis: Civil War Novel

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To recount how Eliphalet Hopper arrived in St. Louis is to share a familiar tale. Mr. Hopper often tells this story, sometimes in the presence of his daughter-in-law, though he is a bold character who challenges the established norms of Boston and has resumed chewing tobacco. When Eliphalet first came to town, Mrs. Samuel Dwyer had yet to be born, and gentlemen of both Cavalier and Puritan backgrounds had not yet begun to frequent the Planters' House, preparing for their adventures in Kansas, where they would engage in their favorite pastime of free fighting. At that time, Mr. Douglas had not yet stirred the tensions of war with his notions of Local Sovereignty. Eliphalet's arrival is vividly depicted: a lonely boy standing at the prow of the steamboat Louisiana on a sweltering summer morning, gazing uneasily at the chocolate waters of the Mississippi. His journey from Louisville had already presented sights that might have shocked a lad from Massachusetts, including a deck on the Paducah filled with cattle. This moment captures the essence of his transition to a new and challenging environment, setting the stage for the adventures and trials that lay ahead.