Alice Mavery: A Question of Valor

Irish orphan Alice Mavery is raised with strong Christian faith in an 1850’s German community in Pike County, OH. When her guardian dies before the outbreak of the Civil War, circumstances move her to a new town that comes under attack in the Confederate raid of General John Hunt Morgan’s men. Her life will be forever changed as she is assigned to care for the wounded.
The scene moves into Kentucky where Alice must cling to her Christian faith as she learns to deal with a state struggling to find its identity in political loyalties and social conventions. She is taken in by the Swiss grandparents of a sullen young Confederate lieutenant. Jon Buhler is dedicated to “the Cause” and determined to return to win the fight. The relationship between Jon and Alice will become a war in itself due to a matter of faith - not politics - that divides them.
Even the law is falling apart as Kentucky comes under the rule of Union General Burbridge whose harsh tactics are meant to control a confused population that is repeatedly under attack and by Union troops, Confederate troops and bushwhackers from both sides. Survival is day-to-day as the civilian population struggles to learn the truth of what is happening on the battlefield. Newspapers are full of speculation and exaggerations. Mail delivery for the Confederacy dwindles, opening the excruciating uncertainty and loneliness for months at a time.
When the war ends, the joy is tempered by estrangements that have built during the time the men were away. Men are suffering from what they experienced on the battlefields. Women have learned to become independent just to survive and their earlier submissive ways have disappeared. This is an adjustment some of the men will find difficult to overcome. There is an explosion of children being born as those who have survived recognize the value of life and family. Many of the soldiers were only youths when they volunteered and they have become men during the war. They are eager to get on with life.
Characters of this story are blended with real life heroes and villains of the war that tried to tear apart the nation of America beginning in 1861. Small details of factual activities are brought to life as Alice Mavery learns to survive with her faith in Jesus being her strength.