

Though occasionally overwrought, this impressively researched novel will fascinate aficionados. Valiantly, Hicks returns to small, human stories in the midst of an epic catastrophe. Zachariah ends up in Carrie's care at the makeshift hospital, and their rather chaste love forms the emotional pulse of the novel, while Carrie fights to relocate the buried soldiers when her wealthy neighbor threatens to plow up the field after the war. By the end of the battle, 9,000 soldiers have perished, and thousands of Confederates are buried in a field near the McGavock plantation.

Winder, 1829-1905 - Fiction, McGavock, Caroline E. Nathan Stiles, who watches waves of rebels shot dead, and Confederate Sgt. The widow of the south by Hicks, Robert, 1951-Publication date 2006 Topics McGavock, Caroline E. In alternating points of view, the battle is recounted by different witnesses, including Union Lt. Nathan Bedford Forrest commandeers her house as a field hospital. Before the 1864 battle of Franklin, Confederate Gen. Carrie is mourning the death of several of her children, and, in the absence of her husband, has left the care of her house to her capable Creole slave Mariah. Hicks's big historical first novel, based on true events in his hometown, follows the saga of Carrie McGavock, a lonely Confederate wife who finds purpose transforming her Tennessee plantation into a hospital and cemetery during the Civil War.
