A House Divided

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”—A. Lincoln

Continuing the saga told in Letters to Oma of the von Scholls, a German family immigrating to Texas in 1847, A House Divided tells the story of the effect of the Civil War on German Texans who frowned on slavery and, like Sam Houston, thought the Union must be preserved at all costs.

The von Scholl family is split apart when two brothers choose different sides—Will joining the Confederacy and Fred refusing to fight. When Fred is killed by renegade southerners and Will captured by Union soldiers, sixteen-year-old Louisa—Tina’s baby sister in Letters to Oma—masquerades as a hospital orderly to rescue Will from his Yankee prison. Louisa’s adventuresome story stands for that of over 800 women, on both sides, who actually went to war during this tragic conflict.