Betsy Small tells Henry Mellon that she is reading "The Wandering Jew," a sprawling French novel by Eugene Sou, published as a serial in 1844 and thereafter translated and published in popular magazines around the world. Henry, who can barely read, lies when asked if he has read it. In a subsequent scene, Betsy reads aloud a passage from the novel involving the characters Father Rodin, Mme. de la Sainte-Colombe and Dumoulin. Despite its title, this book is not so much anti-Semitic as anti-Jesuitical, portraying Rodin and other Jesuits as conspiratorial, greedy and vicious.
Francis and Henry Mellon are semi-literate, which they find embarrassing enough to hide. Their neighbor, Betsy Small, is literate enough to read novels. Betsy helps Francis with his correspondence with Henry, while Henry gets his comrade, Ambrose, to help him with his side of the correspondence. While many soldiers in the American Civil War were illiterate, an unprecedented number were not, yielding an enormous volume of letters and diaries written by enlisted men as well as officers.
Director and co-writer Zachary Treitz based the story on his own family history. His ancestors settled an area of Kentucky similar to the community portrayed in the movie. He and co-writer Kate Lynn Scheil (who also plays Josephine Small) extensively researched local history from the period and read actual letters and diaries to get ideas.