My Brother Sam Is Dead Pg 1-40

  The book takes place in 1775 in the middle of the American Revolution. The main focus of chapter one is on Sam.  He is a young adult who recently go involved in the war.  Hec\ is part of the new American Revolutionary Army.  He joined the war effort because he wants to become independent and free.  His family is divided however, because his brother, Tim, and his father don't want America to become independent.  They are loyal supporters of the English king.  
   Sam returns home one night and his whole family is excited to see him.  Sam is great kid, he is brave, courageous, smart, and always knows the right thing to do.   As he enters the house the first thing he says is "We have beaten the British in Massachusetts!" His father asks him a series of skeptical questions and they begin fighting.  The Meeker family is always fighting.  Sam has totally different views on the war than his brother and his father.  Sam's father keeps questioning if the loss of thousands of lives is really worth saving a few pennies in taxes.  Sam says that America should stick up for what is right, and his father looses his temper.  Tim doesn't want to get in the middle of things so he just sits back and listens, as usual. Even though Sam went to Yale, his father always thinks he knows better.  
   After dinner Tim and Sam go out to the barn to milk the family cow.  When they are out in the barn Sam tells Tim that the only reason he came back to the house was because he joined the rebel side under the leadership of captain Benedict Arnold; and that he needs to take Brown Bess, a bayonet gun that belongs to his father. Tim wants to tell his father, but doesn't want to cause anymore tension between him and Sam so he decides to keep quite.  Feeling torn, Tim goes to bed and waits for Sam to join him. He wakes in the middle of the night to arguing between Sam and his father.  Sam is demanding the Brown Bess, but his father refuses.  He then begins to tell Sam of a sad story of when he was involved in a war back in the day. He said he had to carry his best friends body in bag to his parents, and he didn't want to receive Sam's body in the same way.  So he gave Sam a choice, either leave the house empty handed or stay and quit the war.  Sam leaves, and then he hears his father crying, and knows that the times to come are going to be difficult. 
  So far i really like this book.  My sister read it a long time ago and told me that it is a good and quick read so i decided to read it.  I can already tell that i am going to get very emotional while reading this book.  I hope that Sam and his father fix their issues because i hate seeing families fight.