Bravery

A mysterious creature stalks the land, eating barbed wire and devouring tractors and plows. The farmers are mystified - and afraid. And then they glimpse him in the night: the Iron Giant, taller than a house, with glowing headlight eyes and an insatiable taste for metal. Where has he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows. What they do know is that the Iron Giant must be stopped. But the real threat hovers above.... J Fic Hug

Because he had been unable to fight off the gator which injured his father, fourteen-year-old Thrasher joins the Confederate Army, en route to Virginia, hoping to prove his manhood.