Amelia's War

Amelia's War is a thoroughly excellent book about the Civil War. It is based on historical facts, with a few, but not many, fictional people thrown in.

Amelia and her family live a town in Maryland. What is important about this is that the town is very strongly divided between those who favor the Union (including Amelia and her family) and those who favor the South. There are a number of rather ugly incidents that take place showing just how strong feelings are that some of the people have against those who don't believe the same way.

The newspaper office is destroyed, but a young boy remains behind to try to get it going again. He leans towards supporting the Rebels. Amelia is trying to stay totally neutral, but finds it harder and harder.

Complicating matters tremendously is that, because of the location of the town, there are frequently army forces going through the town; sometimes it's Union forces, and sometimes it's Southern forces. Sometimes the encounters are peaceful, and sometimes the worst sides of the fighters is seen.

There's also another girl who has to kill a Rebel drifter when he tries to take advantage of her. She wants to get involved in the fighting. Amelia's older brother leaves to join the fighting. Her father has to make trips out of town to get supplies for his store, but sometimes he has to leave since he's a Union-sympathizer and, when the Rebels come through town, it's healthy for such people to be far away.

Although even with the Rebels around, things can happen.

It's a really good book to show just how divisive the Civil War could be on an entire town, and how that can affect a family. There is also a very ugly incident relating to a Southern general's threat to destroy the town if a ransom in money and goods is not paid, and that shows a very, very nasty part of the war.

Absolutely worth reading.

Main Index

Yadult Index