How much impact can war leave on a simple family? To some, it barely leaves much of an impact at all, but to the Meeker family, war had taken away many family members, made their business go nearly bankrupt, and interfered with their jobs as Redding tavern-keepers. The most important loss from their family was their father.

In most families, there is a father that helps out everyone; to the Meeker’s, the war had taken that member away. In the story, Life, the father of the Meeker’s, is against the Rebels and therefore he is considered an enemy of the colonies’ freedom. Considering that he is a Tory, an enemy of the Patriots, when he and his son, Tim, are on the way back from their annual trip to Vernplanck’s Point, Life is captured and sent to a prison ship. This was a huge devastation because a while before this event was the departure of Soldier Sam, which left only two members to work at the Meeker tavern.

While their father was imprisoned and taken far away, their oldest son, Sam, looked as if he was supporting the wrong side. Sam was a Patriot, or a soldier who was fighting for the colonies’ freedom; and because he was a Patriot, he had been deployed and was in the Revolutionary War itself. As a soldier, Sam had a high-ranked general as his commander. This general, whose name was Putnam, was a very strict commander, and he gave harsh punishments for all types of crimes so that his soldiers didn’t dare commit it again. With that in mind, General Putnam’s garrison, the one Sam was in, had come back to Redding to catch the British army that had passed though. Sam, continuously leaving his post to visit his family, is soon caught “stealing his own cattle”. He, for desertion and cattle theft, is sentenced to execution; leaving the Meeker family to its last two members, Tim and his mother, Savannah.

After losing important family members, the Meeker’s tavern business suffered