Taken by the Enemy

Taken by the Enemy is one of Oliver Optic’s many novels for boys in his Civil War and military adventure series, with the captured by the enemy premise giving the author the kind of dramatic situation that the genre rewarded. The standard plot beats of the wider Optic military fiction follow. The young protagonist faces the dangers of military service and capture, demonstrates the courage and moral character that the genre required, and eventually finds his way back to his own forces and to the kind of resolution that the wider Optic catalogue is built around.

Oliver Optic produced military fiction set in multiple historical wars, including most prominently the Civil War, which had been the formative national experience for the generation that read his books in the post war decades. The captured by enemy plotting was a recurring subgenre within his wider military fiction, with the various Optic novels using the captivity premise in different historical contexts.

For scholars of nineteenth century American children’s literature, of how American military history was translated into adventure fiction for the young, or of the wider career of Oliver Optic, the military and naval series are essential. Many of his books are now in the public domain.