Showing results by narrator "Joanne Juhnke" in All Categories

Set against the backdrop of three major American Civil War battles at Antietam, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg, the same five narrators return to tell the stories of what happened in their communities of conscience. Members of Mennonite, Amish, and German Baptist churches choose their loyalties when their traditional belief of not participating in warfare collides with the demands of Union and Confederate forces.

In this series finale of historical fiction from 1864 and 1865, the spotlight shines brightest on Esther and David in the ravaged Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, while all five narrators show versions of courage, adaptation, and survival. During these closing years of the American Civil War, no human experience can be ordinary: not marriage, not enterprising work, not youthful growth.

Authentic voices shape this fresh look at a familiar story, the American Civil War, beginning with the rapid buildup of tension between North and South and continuing into early summer of 1862. But the narrative grip comes through the eyes of civilians, trapped in the conflicts of obedience to government and historic refusal to participate in warfare. Their options press with insistence (enlisting, fleeing, buying a substitute, or paying a fee) as the demands intensify.