The author weaves a suspenseful, dramatic, historical saga of ambition, love, murder, and one family's tragedy and triumph through the latter part of the Civil War. There are several intriguing twists in the plot: cowardice, obsession, hypocrisy, from dual simulation, that surprise and challenge the family of their leader caught up in their two worlds of avarice, rapacity, insatiable greed and lust. While the war ravages on amid the stormy, personal lives of the people, while we see those depredations only add to the mayhem, we are reminded there are no pristine priests. Still, this book is very inspiring to anyone whose Christian ideals are beyond compromise.

Try to meet me in Heaven where I hope to go. These poignant words were written in the summer of 1865 by twenty-year-old Confederate Sergeant Isaac Newton Koontz, in a letter he penned for his fiance just hours before his death at the hands of Union firing squad in the heart of Virginias Shenandoah Valley. The execution of Koontz and Captain George Summers came after the surrender at Appomattox Court House, and remains one of the most tragic yet little-known events of the Civil War. One month prior to kneeling on the hard ground to face their deaths, Koontz and Summers, along with four other Confederate soldiers, stole horses from a Union troop stationed near their home. Soon after the theft, the young menremorseful and goaded by their fathers to uphold their honorreturned the horses and were offered a pardon by Union Colonel Francis Butterfield. The rebs returned home, free of mind and clean of conscious. All had been forgiven. Or so they thought. As the sun crept over the horizon on June 27, 1865, Union soldiersunder new commandswarmed the family homes of Summers and Koontz in a swift raid and arrested the two bewildered men. They were told that their pardons were no longer valid, and later that same day they were tied to a stake and shot with Union musketsno trial, no judge, no jury. Before their deaths, Summers and Koontz were allowed to write farewell letters to their loved ones, and these heartrending documents serve as the basis for Robert Moores insightful recounting of the Summers-Koontz execution. An experienced Civil War writer and a direct descendent of Koontzs fiance, Moore brings this shocking story to life with a clarity that will appeal to Civil War experts and enthusiasts alike. Exhaustively researched and well written, Tragedy in the Shenandoah Valley tells one of the great and largely untold stories of the Civil War.

Shenandoah is a multi-generational story of two Virginia families—the MacAlpines and Ballantines—in the fi rst half of the 20th Century. Through the lenses of heredity and environment, the novel examines how human evolution slowly progresses by the combination, recombination and reappearance of traits. Randolph MacAlpine, scion of these two families, personifi es this process of change. Within this seemingly random variation, there is an order and pattern beneath the surface of the human struggles of war, adversity, the drive to procreate and ultimately to transcend. Above all, the human soul is ever at the center of this evolutionary unfolding.

For fifteen years Sue Eisenfeld hiked in Shenandoah National Park in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, unaware of the tragic history behind the creation of the park. In this travel narrative, she tells the story of her on-the-ground discovery of the relics and memories a few thousand mountain residents left behind when the government used eminent domain to kick the people off their land to create the park. With historic maps and notes from hikers who explored before her, Eisenfeld and her husband hike, backpack, and bushwhack the hills and the hollows of this beloved but misbegotten place, searching for stories. Descendants recount memories of their ancestors “grieving themselves to death,” and they continue to speak of their people’s displacement from the land as an untold national tragedy. Shenandoah: A Story of Conservation and Betrayal is Eisenfeld’s personal journey into the park’s hidden past based on her off-trail explorations. She describes the turmoil of residents’ removal as well as the human face of the government officials behind the formation of the park. In this conflict between conservation for the benefit of a nation and private land ownership, she explores her own complicated personal relationship with the park—a relationship she would not have without the heartbreak of the thousands of people removed from their homes. Purchase the audio edition.

My Shenandoah, 1966 was originally planned to merely record an objective local history, but its enthusiastic fans will assure you the book developed well beyond that into a highly readable, engrossing work for everyone. Its ample supply of endearing personal anecdotes and historical peculiarities make this local history quite an entertaining read. The book also makes the jump from mere local appeal by embracing the universal nostalgia of the era we know as The Sixties. The original motive of providing a thorough demography of the Coal Region town of Shenandoah, fifty years before its Sesquicentennial, is achieved. However, the books scope is much more universal. It is an accurate picture of a small town America in that Golden Age of our nations history; it takes all its readers back on a nostalgic tour of that extraordinary decade known as the Sixties. The first person narrative has two authors in one. Youll see the Sixties through the innocent eyes of the 9 year old who lived them. Gain his impressions of his education, his views on the towns diversity and its prejudices. Thrill in the childish enjoyment of life in small town America of this generation. But, realize that child has grown into a 59 year old historian. Explore with him the town and countys national prominence and historical figures. Look back at the Corner Stores, the Penny Candy, the Supermarkets, the Cars, the Drinking, and the Holidays. Philosophize with him over the changing times. Look back at a firsthand account of Americas most memorable decade and more.

Reprint of the 2d, augm. ed., 1969, published by Shenandoah Pub. House, Strasburg, Va.

Deja Barnett is embarking on a journey to Shenandoah Valley to try on a gorgeous wedding gown. She has a cake tasting appointment all lined up and a walk-thru at the venue to ensure the BIG day is perfect. The only thing is, she’s not the one getting married… When Deja happily signed on as her sister’s maid of honor, she didn’t expect she’d also be the ‘stand-in’ bride to handle ALL the tasks her busy, real estate sister isn’t able (or willing) to do. She also didn’t expect that her car would break down in a snowstorm on the way to the valley. And she definitely didn’t foresee the talk, dark and handsome, Dare Stokes, coming to her rescue. Dare helps Deja to her condo and he thought that would be the last time he saw her. He was wrong. They’re connected in a way that neither of them can believe, but another connection is swirling between the single, ditsy woman who men didn’t quite ‘get’, and the handsome bachelor who had his heart broken six years ago.

"Shenandoah, Daughter of the Stars" is a historical romance set during a naturally visual time of the civil war between the Union and Confederate states of America. Young Elizabeth Breakfield is seventeen years old and must quickly mature as she faces the oncoming hardships brought on by the civil war. The story is largely based on my great-great grandmothers journal entries citing real events, people and historic battles of the American Civil War.

Jed Buchanan is one of the Blue Ridge mountain people displaced by the formation of the Shenandoah National Park. Through a quirk of fate he is offered a job as a farm manager on one of the loveliest farms in the Shenandoah Valley. Though he loves the life, dire danger lurks in the form of a fanatical, old-style Ku Klux Klan klavern that has been operating in the rural areas of Northern Virginia. Jed falls in love with two very different women: the beautiful, sultry sophisticate, Virginia Chadwick, whom he saves from being savaged by a vicious dog. This leads to the humble hillbilly giving regular lectures to one of the most powerful groups in Washington DC., Then theres lovely, spunky Sage Kelly, who has left three men at the altar. However, Jed has good reason to suspect that she and her brother, Tom, are members of the Ku Klux Klan. Sequel to the widely acclaimed "Falling Leaves and Mountain Ashes", this compelling epic novel, set in the1940s and 1950s, displays once again what a master storyteller George is.