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This opera was conceived to fit into curricula that included the opening up of the country and the Civil War.
The opera begins in April, 1861 in St. Joseph, Missouri at a hoedown, with an onstage fiddler. We meet Children, Eliza their young teacher, and Tom, her sweetheart. Tom asks Eliza to marry him, and though she adores him, she makes him promise not to enlist in Lincoln's Army if war breaks out. Having been an orphan herself, she cannot imagine marrying someone who will leave her. Tom insists it is his duty to enlist, this war must be fought but Eliza insists just as strongly that this war has nothing to do with them. Stunned at Tom's commitment to President Lincoln, to separate from him she accepts a mission with the Children's Aid Society: she will chaperone an “orphan train”, a group of children from New York being sent to start new lives with families in the west. Furious, stubborn, but still in love, they part.
Alone in the train going east, Eliza mourns her loss of Tom while the train itself (Train Chorus) sings of “Crossing America” and the route overland. Eliza collects her orphans (Children's Chorus) and starts back on the train west. Having been one of the first orphan train riders herself, she is filled with sympathy and anxiety for her young charges.
The first morning en route the Conductor announces that war has broken out. Eliza, who thinks the war will never affect her, finds an escaped slave named Markus hiding, terrified, in their train car. Hearing Markus' story of searching for his sold-off children, the war finally does come home to her and she finally understands why Tom has enlisted, indeed, must enlist.
The train arrives in St. Joseph, the frightened orphans take their places for The Viewing, not unlike slaves on the block. Eliza worries both about her orphans and their futures and whether or not it is too late for her and Tom. Tom appears, ready to board this same train for the nearest Union fort. Elated, Eliza tells him she understands his point of view now, and she will marry him now. Since Tom fully expects to be back before harvest, they adopt the two remaining boys. Finally happy, Tom boards the train, where he meets Markus, now in Union uniform. The orphans re-enter with new parents yet they are isolated, alone, displaced. The train takes up its song of American towns again; this time, however, it is a litany of Civil War battle sites that goes on and on and on and on.
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