South Carolina Childrens, Junior and Young Adult Book Award
2001 · Young Adult · Nominee
About This Book
It is the final winter of the war, and in the wake of an infamous order issued by General Ulysses S. Grant, Union armies have laid waste to the majestic Shenandoah Valley. As bitter weather sets in, the civilian population struggles in the face of hardship and deprivation in a land marked by violence and terror. It is then that a stranger arrives in the small village of Port Republic, once the site of one of Stonewall Jackson's greatest victories, but now a backwater to the final battles taking place around Richmond. When someone begins desecrating the graves of soldiers buried near Jackson's former headquarters, it is Jamie Lockhart who uncovers an incredible secret that could very well cost him his life.
Pursued by men who would kill to gain the information he possesses and befriended by a mysterious one-armed soldier and a beautiful young woman, Jamie embarks on a quest that will test the limit of his courage and endurance. As they travel through the war-torn valley, they must survive a titanic blizzard known as "Lincoln's last Christmas present" to the South.
This magnificent novel hauntingly and vividly brings to life one of the most dramatic periods of the Civil War, and the resilient people who lived through it. It is a splendid novel that will claim a cherished place in all Civil War collections.
