Leaves of Absence: The War-Torn (But Mostly Just Annoyed) Life a Vicksburg Cottonwood

Told from the wry, world-weary perspective of a ninety-year-old Eastern Cottonwood on the Vicksburg bluffs, this illustrated novella recasts the Siege of Vicksburg (1862-63) as witnessed by the wildlife who actually lived through it. The tree - dryly unimpressed by human "architecture," steamboats, and ironclads - narrates the chaos alongside its animal tenants: a gossiping flying squirrel, a bickering mockingbird couple who mimic cannon fire for fun, a cynical raccoon matriarch, and a possum with poor impulse control. Real historical beats (a grounded steamboat, Farragut's ironclad fleet, the CSS Arkansas's suicidal run through the Union gauntlet, a human family sheltering in a cave dug into the tree's roots) play out as slapstick and quiet tragedy in equal measure, with the tree itself taking a cannonball to the trunk and losing a limb before the armies finally move on. It closes on a note of patient, ecological perspective - the tree outlasting the war, certain the humans will return.Dedicated to the work and the mission of the Arbor Day Foundation.