The Third Mrs. Galway


Deirdre Sinnott - 2021
    By exposing the painful past she has created a beautiful, timely, and uplifting book with unforgettable characters who kept me guessing.--Donna Hylton, author of A Little Piece of Light: A Memoir of Hope, Prison, and a Life UnboundDeirdre Sinnott is an extraordinary writer whose eye misses nothing. This compelling story is a must read--and it couldn't be more timely.--David Black, award-winning journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and producerA fast-paced excursion into Utica, New York, in the mid-1830s, The Third Mrs. Galway captures the true-life antiabolition riots against the New York Anti-Slavery Society. With lively and enjoyable prose, Deirdre Sinnott brings the story of emancipation alive.--Paul Stewart, cofounder of the Underground Railroad History ProjectThe Third Mrs. Galway offers readers romance, adventure, and poignant family drama while also providing insight into the complexity of antislavery attitudes before the Civil War. This is a historical page-turner that both enlightens and entertains.--Barbara Weisberg, author of Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of SpiritualismWith historical accuracy, Deirdre Sinnott brings to life the surprising drama of freedom-seekers and slave-catchers in Oneida County. This book animates the history of the region and the larger Underground Railroad phenomenon in a way that street signs and public lectures cannot.--Jan DeAmicis, cochair of the Oneida County Freedom Trail CommissionThe Third Mrs. Galway reads like Balzac, with fear, desire, terror, and love intertwined in this gripping work of historical fiction. Deirdre Sinnott weaves the stories of a cross-section of 1835 Utica, New York, into an impressive and fascinating narrative that contemplates race, class, history, and the search for justice and humanity. ReadThe Third Mrs. Galway to be swept into the uncertain, violent time of 1830s New York and to see in new ways how that moment still affects our own.--Taylor M. Polites, author of The Rebel WifeIt's 1835 in Utica, New York, and newlywed Helen Galway discovers a frightening secret: two runaway slaves are hiding in the shack behind her husband's house. Suddenly, she is at the center of not only the era's greatest moral dilemma, but her own as well. Should she be a good wife and report the fugitives to her husband? Or will she defy convention and come to the aid of the least of her brethren?Within her home, Helen is haunted by the previous Mrs. Galway, recently deceased but still an oppressive presence. Her husband, injured by a drunken tumble off his horse, is assisted by a doctor of questionable ambitions who keeps a close eye on Helen. In charge of all things domestic is Maggie--formerly enslaved by the Galway family and freed when emancipation came to New York eight years earlier.At the same time, Utica is at the center of emancipation efforts as abolitionists arrive for the founding meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society. Those who plead for an immediate end to enslavement are attacked by newspapers accusing them of being insurrectionists and traitors to the Constitution. Everyone faces dangerous choices as they navigate this intensely heated personal and political landscape.

Varina


Charles Frazier - 2018
    He instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varina at the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American history—culpable regardless of her intentions. The Confederacy falling, her marriage in tatters, and the country divided, Varina and her children escape Richmond and travel south on their own, now fugitives with “bounties on their heads, an entire nation in pursuit.” Intimate in its detailed observations of one woman’s tragic life and epic in its scope and power, Varina is a novel of an American war and its aftermath. Ultimately, the book is a portrait of a woman who comes to realize that complicity carries consequences.

Civil War Ghost Stories and Legends


Nancy Roberts - 1992
    The accounts of gallantry and heroism have spread far and wide. Nancy Roberts grew up listening to her father's stories of the War Between the States and she trekked over many battle sites with him during her childhood.

The Civil War: An Illustrated History


Geoffrey C. Ward - 1990
    Lee, but genteel Southern ladies & escaped slaves, cavalry officers & common foot soldiers who fought in Yankee blue & Rebel gray. The Civil War also includes essays by historians of the era: Don E. Fehrenbacher, on the war's origins; Barbara J. Fields, on the freeing of slaves; Shelby Foote, on the soldiers & commanders; James M. McPherson, on the political dimensions; & C. Vann Woodward, assessing the America that emerged from the war's ashes.Introduction: The crossroads of our being1861: A house divided Why the war came/ Don E. Fehrenbacher1862: Forever freeWho freeds the slaves?/ Barbara J. Fields1863: The universe of battleMen at war: an interview with Shelby Foote1864: Most hallowed groundWar & politics/ James M. McPherson1865: The better angels of our natureWhat the war made us/ C. Vann Woodward

Andersonville


William Marvel - 1994
    Most contemporary accounts placed the blame for the tragedy squarely on the shoulders of the Confederates who administered the prison or on a conspiracy of higher-ranking officials. In this carefully researched and compelling revisionist account, William Marvel provides a comprehensive history of Andersonville Prison and conditions within it. Based on reliable primary sources - including diaries, Union and Confederate government documents, and letters - rather than exaggerated postwar recollections and such well-known but spurious "diaries" as that of John Ransom, Marvel's analysis exonerates camp commandant Henry Wirz and others from charges that they deliberately exterminated prisoners, a crime for which Wirz was executed after the war. According to Marvel, virulent disease and severe shortages of vegetables, medical supplies, and other necessities combined to create a crisis beyond Wirz's control. He also argues that the tragedy was aggravated by the Union decision to suspend prisoner exchanges, which meant that many men who might have returned home were instead left to sicken and die in captivity.

Acre


J.K. Swift - 2016
    The Kingdom of Jerusalem hanging by a thread. One Knight Justice must face his greatest fears or die trying… Brother Foulques de Villaret just wants to stay in Acre and perform his sworn duties. Instead, the young Hospitaller Knight of Saint John must undertake a dangerous journey from the Holy Land to a remote village nestled in the Alps, the ‘Spine of the World’. His mission: buy 500 peasant boys and return them to Acre to be trained as Soldiers of Christ. Pursued across the Mid-Earth Sea by slavers, Brother Foulques and his Army of Children are about to be thrust into a confrontation with the greatest warriors the East has ever known: the Mamluks. To survive, Brother Foulques must turn to risky alliances… and pray that his choices do not lead them all to destruction. Acre is the first book in the Hospitaller Saga, a series of breathtaking historical novels set in the late 13th century. If you like action-packed adventure and authentically rich fiction, then you’ll love J. K. Swift’s historically epic masterpiece.

From Manassas To Appomattox


James Longstreet - 1896
    According to some, he was partially to blame for the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg; according to others, if Lee had followed Longstreet's advice, they would have won that battle. He has been called stubborn and vain; and he has been lauded as one of the greatest tacticians of the Civil War. All agree, however, that Longstreet was not only a dependable fighter but completely devoted to Robert E. Lee, who relied on him the most out of all his officers. He acquitted himself bravely in many of the war's bloodiest battles, including those at Antietam, Chickamauga, and the Wilderness. And his staunchest defenders were always the men who served under him. Longstreet's memoirs reflect the combative style of the old soldier. Their tremendous historical interest lies not only in his personal account of the progress of the Civil War, and in the many fascinating anecdotes about Lee and his officers, but in the insight they afford into the mind and character of one of the bravest and most loyal of southern generals.