Review from Amazon:

"The story itself I find one of the great American coming of age novels. My father introduced it to me when I was in high school (1946-1950) and I recently reread it. It can draw tears, Set in the years leading to and of the Civil War, it's about Chad Buford, a wronged and orphaned Kentucky mountain boy, who escapes with his dog and trusty rifle to a hill country village named Kingdom Come, where he is taken in by a local family. The school teacher inspires him to learn. Lost on a school trip, he is found in Lexington by Major Buford, who in time finds Chad is his nephew. As Chad grows up, he is torn by love, and more, by the division of Kentucky by the Civil War. He chooses the Union and is drained by combat. At war's end he decides to go west alone. His surviving love says she will follow. The language can be old fashioned, and in places like that in Huckleberry Finn, but always understanding."

I don't really know why I still have this on my shelf. I suppose it is a sweet story, but I found it cloying. To be quite honest, I don't remember it and wonder if I read it when I was too young. I just went to check on it and the description is nothing like what I remember. I'll read it again, then get back to this. ( )