Virgil Clay-Harris and Willet Blackwel This a historical fiction set in a small north Georgia town during the Civil War and Reconstruction Era.
Two Confederate soldiers return home to the devastated town of Cartersville, Georgia after both are wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga. Virgil Clay-Harris and Willet Blackwell soon come to feud over the war-orphaned town girl, Deekie, who loves them both. She witnesses her friends react to their wartime experiences in dramatically different ways.
Virgil Clay-Harris, the hero of the battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam), struggles for survival, attempting to save his modest family farm from the war's destruction, and afterward from the extended drought that plagues the area.
Willet Blackwell, the deserter from the Confederate army, resorts to a life of marauding and thievery. He leads a gang of renegades who camp upon Three Sisters Mountain just outside town.
When the ambitious and greedy Irish Carpetbagger, Colin Brannigan, comes to town to run the Federal Freedmen's Bureau, he brings along his innocent and beautiful sixteen year-old niece. She strikes up a friendship with "Clay" which soon makes her a healing salve for him, a potential threat to Deekie, and an opportunity for revenge for the evil Willet Blackwell.
The major battles of the Civil War - including Sharpsburg (Antietam), Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and Chickamauga - are integral to the storyline. The march of Union troops under General William T. Sherman through Georgia is also integral to this novel.
This novel is a story of love, envy, greed, revenge, and man's struggle to survive the consequences of war. l return home to Cartersville, Georgia after both are wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga. Boyhood friends, they soon come to feud over Deekie, the town girl who loves them both. When an ambitious Irish Carpetbagger comes to town with his innocent niece, Ever, a series of events re-ignites their rivalry and leads to a dramatic confrontation.
