Clementine Knows All: in Smoke and Time

Ten-year-old Hayden doesn’t understand why his world is shifting—only that it begins with whispers at church, fireflies in the cotton fields, and long talks beneath a willow tree with Elijah, a boy enslaved on the neighboring land. In Clementine Knows All in Smoke and Time, one Southern town becomes a living portrait of the American Civil War, told through the eyes of two boys who never asked for war but had to grow up inside it.

As cannon smoke rises and families fracture, Hayden joins as a courier, delivering letters through mud and musket fire. Elijah, risking everything, makes a harrowing escape to Union lines. Their journeys diverge, but their friendship survives—through battles, heartbreak, and the quiet resistance of planting a school in a broken field.

Told across four sweeping parts—before, during, and after the war—this novel blends humor, sorrow, grit, and grace. A mule named Clementine weaves through the story as a silent witness to the chaos of history and the tenderness of memory.

Richly atmospheric, deeply human, and inspired by the author’s grandson’s passion for history, Clementine Knows All in Smoke and Time is a Civil War tale for readers young and old—a story of friendship, freedom, and finding light in the smoke.

I have included a 100 Q & A about the Civil War. How much do you know?