"The Little Yank" is not intended to be comical, but it is unconsciously so at times. Dorothy Gish is the "Little Yank" who lives with other ladies in hoop skirts near the scene of our Civil War. They decide to send some supplies to the Union Army, and a wagon load of creature comforts is escorted by Dorothy in a carriage. At a fork in the road, the wagon goes to the right and lands comfortably in the Union ranks. The carriage goes to the left and encounters a detachment of Confederates. They politely indicate the right course. It is thus made obvious that going from one army to the other is not a matter of great difficulty, not particularly logical, but accepted as possible. Dorothy finds that her brother is a wounded prisoner in the hands of the enemy. She politely requests the Union General to stop a terrific engagement then in progress. She wishes to visit her brother, and why should she bother to go back to that convenient fork in the road. Two great battle lines are in the midst of a life and death struggle, when the Union General sends a flag of truce asking the enemy to stop firing while a lady crosses over to see her brother. Both armies rest, while Miss Dotty crosses the battlefield with her man servant, and she is spared the annoyance of driving a few miles to the fork in the road. She gets back to the Union lines without any particular trouble. Officers and troop have really nothing at stake when the author is directing the battle from both sides at the same time. When an author intervenes to command the sun to stand still, the story fails in adherence to the inevitable; it lacks all the charm and illusion of abiding veracity. – The Moving Picture World, January 13, 1917
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