Brief description:
From the book cover:
My Dearest Cecelia,
You said once that you would pity the man who would ever becomeInc my enemy . Do you recall my reply? Although many years have passed, my answer is the some now as then. I would ever love and protect you. That I have done. Forgive all else. I am only a soldier.
William T.‘ Sherman
As she enters the commencement balls a WEST POINT MILITARY ACADEMY on a spring evening in 1837 in her pink gown with white silk roses and ropes of pearls, Cecelia Stovall looks -- and feels -- like the perfect, innocent Southern belle. Little does she know that at that dance she will meet the man who will change her life -- and the lives of all her fellow Southerners -- forever. Cecelia falls instantly in love with the dashing young Northern cadet, William Tecumseh Sherman, and they embark on a fiery, secret rendezvous despite their broad cultural differences and the expectation that they will marry others.
Their love remains poignantly kindled through the worst obstacles and years of separation and longing. And when the long-threatened Civil War starts, Cecelia and William take their places of prominence on opposite sides of their country’s deepest and fiercest challenge, as William becomes the very same General Sherman who was feared and hated throughout the South. Legend has it that Sherman’s love for Cecelia was the reason he spared her hometown of Augusta during his infamous march to the sea, in which his troops cut a swath through nearly every other town in Georgia and burned Atlanta to the ground.
My Dearest Cecelia,
You said once that you would pity the man who would ever becomeInc my enemy . Do you recall my reply? Although many years have passed, my answer is the some now as then. I would ever love and protect you. That I have done. Forgive all else. I am only a soldier.
William T.‘ Sherman
As she enters the commencement balls a WEST POINT MILITARY ACADEMY on a spring evening in 1837 in her pink gown with white silk roses and ropes of pearls, Cecelia Stovall looks -- and feels -- like the perfect, innocent Southern belle. Little does she know that at that dance she will meet the man who will change her life -- and the lives of all her fellow Southerners -- forever. Cecelia falls instantly in love with the dashing young Northern cadet, William Tecumseh Sherman, and they embark on a fiery, secret rendezvous despite their broad cultural differences and the expectation that they will marry others.
Their love remains poignantly kindled through the worst obstacles and years of separation and longing. And when the long-threatened Civil War starts, Cecelia and William take their places of prominence on opposite sides of their country’s deepest and fiercest challenge, as William becomes the very same General Sherman who was feared and hated throughout the South. Legend has it that Sherman’s love for Cecelia was the reason he spared her hometown of Augusta during his infamous march to the sea, in which his troops cut a swath through nearly every other town in Georgia and burned Atlanta to the ground.
Publication
St. Martin's Griffin (2004), 320 pages
Original publication date
2003