My ‘My Brother Sam is Dead’ journal

English 8E Sarah Yunhye Park

Chapter OneTim’s brother, Sam came back from the army with his uniform

on. Sam is a patriot, but the rest of the family is not. They are the tories. When Sam came back, he was saying things about the war

and what’s going on between England, and the colonies. Mr. Meeker, Sam and Tim’s father

does not like the fact that Sam is a patriot.

Sam comes back home and announces that he has to go to the American Revolution War. His dad

gets mad, of course, because going out to a war is a very serious

problem because you can get killed by going out to the war. There’s a

lot of guns and blood. It’s not a good environment for a 16 year old

student to see and be at for possibly, years.

Tim is worried, because he has never seen his father get so

angry and get in a fight with his brother. The fight calms down and they eat. After dinner, Tim and Sam sat in the milk barn

together and were milking the cow. Suddenly, Sam tells Tim that he is going to steal Dad’s

gun because without a gun you won’t be able to survive during

the war and you won’t be able to go out to the war zone. Even if you DO go out, it will be very

dangerous and you maybe die. When Tim fell asleep, he suddenly heard noise so he got out of his

bed and sneaked downstairs. Mr. Meeker and Sam was fighting. Sam was trying to get hold of the gun, while Mr. Meeker was not letting

him do so. Mr. Meeker got so angry that he told Sam to get out of the house and come back as his son.

Sam gets out of the house and runs away, while Mr. Meeker stays there

crying...

Chapter Two

In chapter one, Mr. Meeker, Tim and Sam’s dad cries and Sam runs away

because Mr. Meeker told him to come back home as a ‘Meeker’. In chapter two, the story begins by starting with an introduction about his father and

how they are tories. Also, it describes about the Presbyterian, colonies’

church and the Anglican, tories’ church. The Meekers go to an Anglican church

and nearby lives Tom Warrups, the indians and they are willing to help

Sam.

After church, Tim meets Tom Warrups, and Tom tells Tim that Sam is currently at his hut. He made an excuse to his dad and

hurried to the hut. There, he meets Sam and his girlfriend,

Betsy Read, whose grandfather is Colonel Read, a prominent local patriot. Tim tells Sam about Mr. Meeker’s tears in wish of Sam

coming back home and not going out to the war. Sam stays silent

for a while but soon explains that he can’t.

Sam needs the gun, in order to survive the war. Without the gun, Sam can get killed

because there is no weapon, but Tim asks Sam to give

back their father’s gun. Sam asks Tim to be quiet and to keep a secret to his family about him, and once again, another Meeker cries. Tim cries as he goes home.

Chapter threeIn chapter three, the story starts off

with an introduction about the tavern. It says how you can meet a various of people and how it it much better to be living in a tavern than living in a

farm. Betsy often comes to the tavern to talk to Tim, but Mrs. Meeker shoos her away. One day, Betsy comes and asks Tim if he would tell his parents if Sam comes back, Tim says no and he kept waiting and waiting for Betsy’s report about Sam’s arrival. After a long time, Betsy comes back to the tavern and gives a signal that Sam

came.

Chapter four

When Tim got a sign that Sam was back in Connecticut, he

was so excited that he couldn’t wait. He was thinking of a way

to sneak out of the house, however, he suddenly heard

horses.

At first Tim was scared and also curious because it was

his first time seeing so many soldiers. Though he

was scared, he just went on cutting the barks, but

suddenly Tim heard a shout from the tavern! When Tim went to the tavern after the

shout, he saw a soldier holding up a rifle against his

mother and twisting his father’s arms to his back.

Tim found out that the soldiers have come to get the tories’ guns because they had run out of supplies. As Tim thought, the

only way to save his parents was for Sam to come and help. Since he knew where Sam was, he went to get him, but he saw the rifle and stole it. As he was running back home, Sam caught up to him. Then, Tim told Sam what was happening but Sam

refused. When he finally agreed and they came back home the soldiers were gone

and Mr. Meeker saw Sam.

Chapter fiveAs time passed and by January of 1776, food was becoming a problem to the tories,

too, and then it became spring. One morning in April, Mr. Heron came to the

tavern. Due to having lots of money and a high social level, Mr. Meeker was always very polite to him. However, Mr. Heron asked Life for a favor which Life would

never do.

Mr. Heron began the favor by complimenting Tim how

smart he is, and then he said that he has a small job for Tim. When life asked him

what kind of job it will be, he replied by saying that Tim

will have to be carrying some business letters. When

Mr. Meeker says no, he means it and he won’t change his mind easily,

however, Life told Mr. Heron that he won’t let another son

go. Though his father said no, Tim still wanted to that job. So, he made a lie the

next day to try and go meet Mr. Heron.

Chapter sixThe day Tim told a lie to his dad, he couldn’t go meet Mr. Heron because of his dad’s suspicion. However, two days

later his mother made Tim go to Mr. Heron’s house to deliver beer. When Tim got to his house, he told Mr. Heron that he’d be willing to take the risk and take the job Mr. Heron asked for. Mr. Heron told Tim to come back on Wednesday

early.

On Wednesday when Tim came to Mr. Heron’s house early by

making another lie that he’d be going fishing, Mr. Heron had a

letter for him to deliver. It took 5 hours to go and another 5 hours

to come back, so Tim had to finish this errand quickly. On the way delivering,

unfortunately, Tim met Betsy Reads who was coming back

from meeting Sam. When Betsy knew that Mr. Heron

was the person who sent Tim out, she felt something was wrong so she tried to take

the letter. But actually, there was nothing important in

there.

Chapter sevenSince Tim wasn’t able to deliver the letter Mr. Heron asked for, he couldn’t meet Mr.

Heron confidently. As time passed Mr. Meeker had to go to Verplancks Point to sell livestock. On the way there they used the shortcut by using Ridgebury, but they met some “cattle thieves” who pretend as patriots and steal the tories’ cattle .

These cattle thieves hurt Mr. Meeker and when they were about to take away the

cattle, Committees of Safety came and the thieves ran away. Luckily, Life wasn’t hurt

much and the cattle was safe. The Committees of Safety helped Life and Tim get to New York and explained about these

thieves.

Chapter eightFortunately, Tim’s North Salem cousins lived in a

clapboard farmhouse just off the Ridgefield Road near where they were. Their name was Platt, and they had a lot of

family but small space. So, everyone was

squished inside the house.

To sell the livestock; cattle, Tim and his father left the house early and reached

Verplancks Point. Tim had never seen such big bodies of river and was surprised by it. It was a long journey to get there from New York, so as the day passed they stayed at a

tavern and left in the morning. Unfortunately, if the weather was good it would have been fortunate, but it started snowing, but they got back to New York to

the Platts’ safely dressed in snow.

Chapter NineTim and Life leave the house and

since it’s not a safe time of the year, Life goes ahead and checks if the road is safe. At the first check Life came back and they moved along

the road through Ridgebury. Tim was waiting for his father to come back and go back home together, but

this time Life took a long time. Tim was worried, so he followed his

father’s tracks. At a certain point father’s horse tracks had stopped and there were lots of tracks surrounding

it. Tim knew that it was the cow-boys.

Tim kept going home knowing that father will not want him staying there waiting for him, so he headed home.

As he was going, 3 mysterious shadows appeared in front of him. Tim started scaring them out by lying if they’re escorts and that Life had told the escorts to

come. Somewhere abroad there happened to be someone passing by with a horse, so the cow-boys

thought that they were the escorts. Eventually the cow-boys ran away, but Tim didn’t feel secure.

Chapter tenTim arrived home safely, but he now had more responsibilities.

Without his brother or his father, he became the man of the house. He had more chores, and had to help the tavern. On April 26th, 1777, Tim hears sounds of the

army. A black slave named Ned tells Captain Betts that the British army are coming in. When they DO come in Tim wasn’t afraid of

them. He considered himself as a tory after his father’s kidnap.

As time goes by, the war made people into vicious beasts. The armies became even more violent, they started killing fellow

citizens. One day, a rebel-messenger comes by but is shot by the British army instantly. Since Tim was the youngest boy, Tim is sent

to bring Doctor Hobart to take care of the messenger. On his way, he sees a horrible

scene. He saw a British soldier slice off Ned’s head and burn down the house and the bodies. Tim doesn’t want to be a tory

anymore, again.

Chapter elevenDr. Hobart gets the bullet out of

the rebel messenger.

Luckily, the bullet didn’t go through his body, it got

stuck. The messenger then tells that Captain Benedict Arnold’s army is coming to Redding in notice of the

British. Tim knew that Sam is in

Benedict Arnold’s army, so he gets

excited.

He sees the continental army come by, so he asks one of the

army if they knew where Sam was. The soldier lets Sam and Tim reunite again. They hug each

other for a while and let go. Tim tells sam about

Life getting kidnapped and

asks him if he can do anything about it. Sam knew and

tried to get his father out, but no one knew where their father was.

Sam was hungry because he only ate the continental army rations. So, he hid in the family’s barn and asked Tim to bring food over. His mother ran out and told Tim that there’s soup to bring. Mrs. Meeker tries persuading

Sam to come back home because Sam’s enlistment ends in two months. Sam could’ve came home,

however, Sam refused and told the family that he had promised the other people to reenlist. After Sam left,

Tim felt like an equal to Sam. Not only a little brother.

Chapter twelveIn June of 1777, the Meeker find out that Life was dead for a month. He died of an epidemic of

cholera which was spread through out the prison ship. Before he died he told a men who was on the

same ship, “Tell them that I love them, and say that I forgive Sam, he’s a brave boy but he’s

headstrong. And now I go enjoy the freedom war has brought me.” Tim realized both the Patriot’s side and the Tory’s side were wrong. He decided

not to take sides anymore.

In the winter of 1778, Sam returns and

announces that he’ll be in Redding until the

Spring. He notices the 8 cows, so he tells the family to butcher up the cows because it can get stolen. One day, when three of

them were talking, the family heard noises out in the barn. When they

went out there were cattle thieves!

Sam tried to stop the thieves but the thieves controlled him by tying

him up. They were going to report to

General Putnam that SAM was the cattle

thief.

Chapter thirteenTim knew that it was wrong to kill an honest person,

especially a family member. So, he went to visit Colonel Parsons, but the guarding soldier told him to come the next day become Colonel Parsons was sleeping. When

Tim went to visit Colonel Parsons the next day, he learns that General Putnam is trying to make an

example to people. Even Mrs. Meeker goes to talk to Colonel Parsons, but after she comes back, she drinks a

lot of rum.

Colonel Read tells Tim that Sam and other people are going to get

executed. Sam was found guilty and was to be shot by a gun. Tim was

shocked and ran to Colonel Parsons. Colonel Parsons finally wrote a note to General Putnam because he, too believed that Sam wouldn’t have

stolen his *own* cattle.

Tim meets General Putnam and tries to convince him to let Sam

out of the prison. General Putnam tells that he’d consider his thought, and lets Tim meet Sam. Sam and Tim meet each other but they are to be apart from each other of 6 feet. Tim tells Sam that General Putnam

said that he’d consider his thought. Sam acts happy even

though he’s to die soon.

Chapter fourteenGeneral Putnam doesn’t accept Sam’s case, and Sam is put in to danger of dying! Tim had no other choice of saving Sam except

for rescuing Sam. So, the night of the church service for the “to-be-executed” people, Tim leaves the house with a cold

heart. He sharpens Life’s bayonet, and even if Mrs. Meeker tries to stop him for the fear of losing both children, he still went to the

encampment.

He hid behind the trees near the cabin where Sam was the other day. Fortunately, the guard was fast asleep!

But when Tim was about to kill the guard, another soldier shot him in the arm. Tim through the bayonet into the cabin and shouted to Sam to come out, but

when he went inside there was no one. The prisoners were all moved! So, Tim ran home and couldn’t sleep. It

was the day of the execution... February 16th.

Mrs. Meeker refused to go to the execution, so Tim went by himself. Soon, soldiers brought in the prisoners who were to die. Tim shouted at Sam and went up front. Tim was in a sack back and the rifle was pointed right to his body. When the gun had been shot, Sam started jerking. They pointed the gun so close that his clothes were on fire. Soon, the soldier shot him once more, and Sam

started jerking.