Historical fiction following the plight of Adair Colley whose family lost their farm to the Union Militia who decided who were not loyal to the South during the time of the Civil War. Adair finds herself sent to a women?s prison in St Louis where she meets a Union major in charge of the inmates confessions. They meet regularly and love happens. He aids in her ability to escape by giving her two $25 gold pieces and promise to meet at her family farm after the war. It is quite a read, with historical letters mixed in with the story. Enjoyed a lot.

Very good Civil War drama about woman captured, jailed in St. Louis and her escape to get back home.

Great historical novel during Civil War in Missouri. Gritty and romantic at the same time. Kind of reminds me of True Grit somehow, maybe for the amusing or old style language. Very good. ( )

In the last months of 1864, the residents of Missouri are being pushed and pulled between warring factions. Guerrilla groups (not formally enlisted in the Rebel Army) strike out from their hidey-holes in the woods and mountains; Union soldiers man strategic forts but also have empowered a militia to enforce martial law. The “leaders” of the militia use this as an excuse to pillage, seizing property, horses, and goods, and to kill anyone who voices any outrage. When 18-year-old Adair Colley’s father is arrested, and their home and barn set afire, she and her sisters begin the trek north to try to get her father released. Instead, she is renounced as a traitor and imprisoned. In the notoriously squalid conditions of her prison she encounters Major William Neuman, a Union soldier who is tasked with obtaining her confession.

I found this work of historical fiction fascinating and engaging. Adair is a strong woman even though she is barely out of girlhood. She remains resolute despite hardship. No horse – no problem – she will walk. She never loses sight of her goal – to find her father, to get home, to reunite her family.

Major Neuman is an interesting counterpoint. Conflicted about his obligations as a Union officer vs his love for Adair, he finds himself walking the tightrope between his duty and his compassion. I do wish Jiles had explored his story a bit more, but I was nevertheless glad to read so much of Adair’s adventures.

I really appreciated, too, that Jiles includes historical documents – letters, reports, journal entries, etc – at the beginning of each chapter. These glimpses of actual events really informed and added to the truth behind this work of fiction. ( )

The road to hell was paved with the bones of men who did not know when to quit fighting. Like the Wild Geese of Ireland they were used and spent like coins by one army after another.

The Civil War was a bloody and costly affair to the men who fought it, and a source of despair for most of our nation's families, who lost their fathers, brothers and sons, but there is another side to the war, and that is its effect on the women who were left to fend for themselves in a world that was unkind to the lone woman. Adair Randolph Colley is one such woman, and Jiles portrays in her a person of wit and intelligence and courage that is astounding.

The war was hard on every state in the South, but in Missouri it was exceptionally violent and cruel. Missouri was a divided state, with as many Confederate as Union sympathizers, and as the war wound down, the atrocities on both sides of the conflict toward the innocent citizenry was appalling. Gangs of marauding men scoured the country, killing at random, and in what is a little explored aspect of the conflict, women were imprisoned for feeding or caring for their own male relatives.

During most of the war, the Colley family has managed to remain neutral and continue to farm their acreage. They have never held any slaves, nor do they have combatants on either side of the conflict. But, the depravity of the Union militia finally catches up to them, and Judge Marquis Colley, Adair’s father, is taken prisoner, the house burned and his three daughters left to their own devices. In an attempt to secure his freedom, Adair, barely 18, travels to the headquarters of the Union army and is there falsely accused of spying and herself imprisoned and sent by train to St. Louis.

Jiles' descriptions of the prison and its inhabitants are vivid and visceral. But, she also brings a kind of poetry to her prose.

The fireplace leaked a slow red light, and the bar shadows lined the opposite wall like thin soldiers or the wraiths of the prisoners gone before.

In St. Louis, we meet another pivotal character in Jiles' saga, Major William Neumann, who has been charged with running the ladies prison, and understandably hates his job. He is a decent man caught in an untenable situation. It is through conversations between Adair and William that we begin to see all the layers of Adair's personality emerge.

Just as she gives us vivid images of the prison, Jiles is equally descriptive of the natural sights in her novel, painting visual scenes that play in your mind like a movie trailer.

Sometimes she walked alongside Whiskey and Dolly in the grassy valleys. The horses drifted along either side of her, grazing. Their lips moved without sound and it seemed they were talking to the earth in a long, complex conversion. On the high barrens of the ridges, the wind tore at her hair and sent her shawl and strands of her black hair streaming behind her. The horses walked beside in protection. They spread the wings of their souls on either side of her. They drank of the air, and Adair walked lightly along with them.

I loved this image of the horses spreading "the wings of their souls". It made a particular scene in the book all the more distressing for me.

Adair is such a strong, reliable, and honest character. We can believe her, and we do, and others see this quality in her as well, but we also see her become a person who will do what is necessary to survive. When we first meet her, traveling down the road with her sisters to seek the freedom of her father, she has dressed her sisters and given them hats, and the imagery is almost clownish and playful, despite the seriousness of the situation. This purity and childishness is not meant to last for long. This is not a world in which anyone is allowed to keep their innocence or naivety.

What makes this book exceptional for me is the grounding it has in the actual history of the time. Jiles has carefully researched her subject, and she opens each chapter with an excerpt from documents of the time detailing the horrors that faced these very real people, in the words of those who experienced it.

The first excerpt is from a letter written by Asey Ladd, a Confederate soldier who writes

Dear Wife and Children; I take my pen with trembling hand to inform you that I have to be shot between 2 & 4 o’clock this evening. I have but few hours to remain in this unfriendly world. There are 6 of us sentenced to die in retaliation of 6 Union soldiers that was shot by Reeves men.

With that harrowing letter, we are warned that this will be a tale of a difficult time; a time that requires strong people; a time of precarious survival. Then Jiles goes on to write a character in the guise of a young girl, who is up to the challenge. I thought of Mattie Ross in True Grit, Ivy Rowe in Fair and Tender Ladies, and Ruby Thewes in Cold Mountain. Adair Randolph Colley belongs to this group: unforgettable women, strong women, survivors. ( )