Robert Lee "Bob" Hamilton is a descendant of Robert E. Lee. Bob and his pal Sid join the Virginia State Militia and fight in several spots during and after WWI. A typical wartime boys' series, the books are full of patriotism and ideals of "Southern manliness and honor." While Bob exhibits these qualities in spades, there is something mildly endearing about a military series in which the hero is so reluctant to actually fight. Unlike, say, the Ted Marsh series -- where Ted and his cohorts pick off enemies with no more thought than if they were swatting flies -- Bob Hamilton aims for the enemy's horse rather than its rider (and feels bad about hitting the horse); he feels relieved when an enemy fighter turns out to have been killed by another man's bullet, and he declines to chase a wounded enemy out across the Mexican border, in part because he is loathe to have to kill him if he catches him. Military life is depicted as stretches of discomfort and tedium broken only occasionally by violence. Side plots involve the thwarting of the plots of Bob's rival for the hand of the lovely Lucille.