Hunter Jones Joins the Civil War(Missouri) by Jinx Olson is a book written about a young boy who is forced to grow up physically and emotionally much greater and faster than most kids his age. At the beginning of the novel, Hunter's dad is shot by a gambler firing at another man. The bullet misses the intended target, hitting his father in the chest and sending him overboard into the strong current never to be seen again. He is accused of being someone just hitching a ride at that point, and when asked to show his ticket finds that the tickets were with his father. He is kicked off of the boat and nearly arrested by the sheriff. He spends some time in the next few days trying to find his father but fails and decides to set camp up in a magnolia tree. He finds a raccoon, an orphan similar to himself, and befriends him. A group of confederate soldiers accidently shoot him and he is taken care of by them. He is made to run errands for the general and make sure his horse is taken care of. After some time, he is given a drum and learns how to play it. While running one of his errands he falls into a coma due to a head wound, and lays in the hospital. His friends read the newspaper each day, and in his coma he lives out what is summarized in the daily newspaper, read by his friends, giving the reader a first-hand experience of the events that took place during the Civil War. General Lyon becomes Hunter's new father figure.