The Spur and The Sash
Apr 11, 2011
Author: Robert Grede
Publisher: Three Towers Press
Publication Date: October 2010
ISBN: 978159598-092-2
The author, Robert Grede, discovered that he had an ancestor that fought in the Civil War, as many of us do. But his ancestor, George Van Norman, had a wrinkle to his story that's out of the norm.
George was fighting for the North when he was injured in Tennessee and when his regiment went to head back North, he was left behind to heal. Left in a Southern Plantation home to be cared for by a woman who's brother was a Confederate soldier. It could not have been the most comfortable of situations. Slowly he and Eva become friends and slowly his caring deepened. George decides he will stay with Eva and help her run the plantation.
In most eyes he's seen as nothing more than a carpetbagger, going after land and lonely women. It is not an easy path he's chosen. There's also the fact that after the war there are many wandering souls who are lost, lonely, hungry and desperate. Keeping the land and people on it safe is a full time job in itself.
This is a lovely book. Straightforward - yet with descriptive writing - it gives a fairly detailed account of that time in our country for the South. Reconstruction, race issues, the rise of the Klan.......... it's all in there and some parts of this book are wince inducing when you read them. But regardless of how much you may wince, it's still worth the read.
