Chapter 2 Summary

Jesse's wife is Zerelda Amanda Mimms James, known to family and friends as "Zee." She is Jesse's first cousin and is named for his mother, Zerelda. Jesse, Frank and Zee had played together as children though Frank, as the older, had been less interested in playing with Zee than Jesse. As adolescents, Jesse and Zee sometimes write letters and his are usually filled with his unhappiness. His father died when he was young and his mother had married a man named Dr. Reuben Samuels. When the Civil War erupts, Frank becomes associated with a group of guerilla soldiers and Union soldiers try to beat information out of Jesse, Dr. Samuels and Jesse's mother, who was pregnant at the time. Jesse soon becomes associated with a similar band and lives in exile in Texas until several months after Lee's surrender. About that time, Jesse...