Tag Archives: Civil War

Michael Phillips. A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2003.

Although Katie and Mayme are only teenagers, they are trying to run the Rosewood Plantation on their own and convince everyone in the nearby town of Greens Crossing that nothing is amiss. Under their watch, Rosewood becomes a sanctuary for several other young women in trouble, including a girl whose mother died when she and her daughter were fleeing her abusive husband, and an ex-slave who is hiding herself and her new baby from a cruel former master. Throughout the novel the four girls struggle to survive, keep one step ahead of those who would harm them, and find a way to pay the bank loans against the property. A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton is the the second book of the historical, faith-based Shenandoah Sisters series.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Historical, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Phillips, Michael, Piedmont, Religious/Inspirational

Michael Phillips. Angels Watching Over Me. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2003.

Katie Clairborne and Mary Ann (Mayme) Jukes were born in the same county less than a year apart, but they did not meet until the Civil War brought tragedy to both their lives. Mayme, a slave on a plantation outside the fictional Greens Crossing, is the lone survivor of an attack by marauding Confederate deserters. She flees and eventually finds herself at Rosewood, the plantation owned by the Clairbornes. Unfortunately, the same gang attacked Rosewood and everyone is dead except Katie. The girls decide to run the plantation and keep the deaths a secret to protect Katie’s claim on the land. They form a strong bond and, through toil and faith, they survive together. This is the first book in the Shenandoah Sisters series of historical, faith-based novels.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Historical, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Phillips, Michael, Religious/Inspirational

Sarah Shaber. Snipe Hunt. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2000.

Raleigh professor and “forensic historian” Simon Shaw was supposed to be spending his Thanksgiving week relaxing at Pearlie Beach, but he agreed to help his friend look for archaeological evidence of a Tuscarora village while he was there. What he did not agree to was investigating the corpse of a World War II diver dredged up off the coast. Confederate gold coins found with the body deepen the mystery and soon Simon is trying to determine if the Navy frogman drowned accidentally or was murdered. This novel is full of information and speculation about ships and shipwrecks, from Confederate blockade runners to German U-boats.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000, 2000-2009, Coast, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Shaber, Sarah

J. Pressley Barrett. Iola, or, Facing the Truth. Raleigh, NC: Edwards, Broughton & Co., 1886.

Religious controversy is at the heart of this novel. George Graham is saved from death on a Civil War battlefield by the saintly Addie Trueheart. After George regains his health, he and Addie marry. They are two soul mates except in matters of religion. George is a strong Baptist, while Addie is not. When George influences their only child, Iola, to become a Baptist, Mrs. Graham’s heart is broken. Her death causes Iola to re-evaluate the Baptist practice of closed communion.  When Iola voices her new beliefs, she is expelled from the church.  Her father is unpersuaded by Iola’s defense of her views (given over many pages in the book) and their relationship deteriorates. After leaving home, Iola makes a life for herself. The author clearly takes Iola’s side, and the book is an anti-Baptist tract.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1880-1889, 1886, Barrett, J. Pressley, Novels to Read Online, Religious/Inspirational

Michael Phillips. Carolina Cousins Series.

In the Carolina Cousins books, the follow-up series to the Shenandoah Sisters books, cousins and best friends Katie and Mayme are still together, but the early years of Reconstruction are hard for the girls. They face both the normal difficulties of growing up and the many troubles of their time. Throughout the series, the girls face adversity–often related to race–and new characters who arrive at Rosewood become part of the family. The themes of friendship, forgiveness, determination, and faith run throughout the books.

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Filed under Historical, Mystery, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Phillips, Michael, Religious/Inspirational, Romance/Relationship, Series

Robert W. Hester. The Battle for North Carolina: Historical Novel of the War between the States. Charleston, SC: BookSurge Publishing, 2008.

In this novel, the Civil War is far from over in December of 1864.  Confederate naval fighters in the waters off North Carolina defeat the Union navy’s blockade.  Wilmington and eastern North Carolina are still threatened, even though Sherman’s march through Georgia has destroyed his army, not Georgia.  This book tells a tale of fierce fighting along the Carolina coastal plain during the early months of 1865.  Historical figures appear, along with fictional characters whose presence adds romantic interest to the narrative and gives the reader a vivid sense of the war’s cost to civilians.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Craven, Docufiction, Hester, Robert W., Historical, New Hanover

Barry D. Yelton. Scarecrow in Gray. New York: iUniverse, 2006.

Although many of his neighbors and relatives joined the Confederate Army, struggling Rutherford County farmer Francis Melton did not see that he had a personal stake in the conflict. He felt he was doing his patriotic duty buy selling his crops to the Confederacy for less than their worth. Eventually, however, he is convinced that he is duty-bound to serve and he leaves his wife and daughters to enlist. Francis and his conscripted friend, Whit Whitaker, face hunger, violence, danger, as they fight their way through the final year of the Civil War. Scarecrow in Gray is loosely based on the author’s great-grandfather’s service in the Civil War.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2006, Coast, Historical, Mountains, Novels in Series, Rutherford, Yelton, Barry D.

Larry G. Morgan. Ivy: Lilies of the Field. Charlotte, NC: Catawba Publishing Co., 2006.

Ivy: Lilies of the Field is Larry Morgan’s third novel based on the lives of Ivy Rowland, his great-grandfather’s first wife, and her friends and family. While the previous two books–Ivy:Yankee Sweetheart, Rebel Nurse and Ivy: Camp Branch to Groveton–take place during the Civil War, this one is bookended by military conflicts: it starts in the final days of the Civil War and ends with the Spanish-American War. In the three decades between the wars, marriages are celebrated, houses are built, and children are raised. Some of the characters settle near the Nantahala Gorge in western North Carolina, while others make their lives in Georgia or Virginia.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2006, Historical, Macon, Morgan, Larry G., Mountains, Novels in Series, Swain

Harry Castlemon. Marcy the Blockade-Runner. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1891.

In this novel is set in North Carolina during the Civil War, the protagonists are a bit of a surprise. Young Marcy Gray, his mother, and brother Jack are Union sympathizers, but they must present a Confederate front to their neighbors. The boys are pilots, halfhearted blockade runners who take to this business to deflect the suspicions of their neighbors and thus protect their mother’s land and wealth. Brother Jack eventually shows his true colors by joining the Union fleet. This is one of two books that follows the Marcy family during the Civil War.

Harry Castlemon is the pseudonym of Charles Austin Fosdick. Fosdick wrote numerous adventure stories for boys in the late nineteenth century. Fosdick himself served in the Union Navy in the Civil War, and some of his experiences may be reflected in this novel.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1890-1899, 1891, Castlemon, Harry, Children & Young Adults, Coast, Historical, Novels to Read Online

Michael Phillips. Never Too Late. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2007.

The third book in the Carolina Cousins series, Never Too Late follows the story of Josepha (Seffie). A slave in her childhood years, Seffie weathers significant personal hardship, beginning when she is sold away from her family as a punishment at seven years old. She plans her escape from slavery for years and eventually tries–and fails–to get to the North through the underground railroad. The story continues into the post-Civil War years, explaining how she comes to live and work at Rosewood, the home of the Carolina Cousins (and Shenandoah Sisters) series’ overall main characters Katie and Mayme. Like other books in the series, the main themes of Never Too Late are the characters’ faith, friendship, and dependence upon each other.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Historical, Novels in Series, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Phillips, Michael, Religious/Inspirational, Romance/Relationship