In Avi's historical novel The Fighting Ground, thirteen-year-old Jonathan disobeys his father, runs away from home, and joins some neighbors to form a militia unit and fight America's enemies. The unit is led by the Corporal, a glowering man who brings the news of an imminent attack from a group of the enemy. The Corporal barks at the men in the tavern, taking charge of the situation and asking Jonathan if he can handle a gun. He then tells the boy to get a musket. Jonathan is filled with pride at this acceptance, even after the tavern keeper tries to warn him about the Corporal's bossy ways. Jonathan is too caught up in the excitement to listen.
Jonathan soon begins to suspect that the Corporal is not quite honest. He first says that the enemy group contains about fifteen men, but as the patriots are marching out to...
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fight, he says that there are twenty or twenty-five. Someone points out that no one has actually elected the Corporal as their leader, yet their silence at his challenge suggests that no one else wants to lead. Jonathan does not understand what is going on beneath this exchange, but he sees that the other men appear "cowed." Yet Jonathan is glad for the Corporal's leadership, for he sees him as a "strong, forceful man."
The men continue on their way to meet the enemy, growing more and more uneasy as they go. The Corporal becomes more and more impatient with them. Also, the Corporal's promised reinforcements fail to show. As the enemy approaches, the Corporal tries to form the men into a fighting force. He is rough about it, pushing Jonathan into the front and ordering them all to load their guns. In the midst of the fight, Jonathan, terrified, runs from the Corporal and everyone else but is captured by the Hessians.
Later in the novel, when Jonathan escapes from the Hessians and returns to the Corporal and the others, he learns something that completely changes his attitude toward the Corporal. Jonathan and the Hessians stay at a cabin where Jonathan finds a small boy. His parents have been killed, and Jonathan buries them with the help of one of the Hessians. When he takes the boy and runs and returns to the Americans, however, he learns that the Corporal is actually the person who killed the couple, for he claimed that they were spies.
Jonathan is now appalled at the cruelty of the man, and he is frightened of him. The Corporal forces him to help capture and kill the Hessians. The Corporal calls to the trapped Hessians in English, knowing (because Jonathan has told him) that they can't understand the language. He thereby sets them up to for what amounts to an execution with no real chance of surrender. Jonathan no longer wants anything to do with the Corporal or with war. He goes home.