Faithful to the Cause by Julianne S Condrey

Richmond, Virginia, 1861. Southern belles Sarah and Felicity are cousins, sixteen, loving family members, and beautiful; blonde Sarah quietly so, auburn-haired Felicity well-aware of her attraction. Their opinions and values about society, politics, slavery, war and young men are poles apart.

Felicity does not question the “right” of slavery, or the belief that the South will win the war. And her heart beats with a romantic pulse for a young gentleman officer who is her cousin’s beau. Too, she is most suspicious of Sarah’s relationship with her slave, Peachy.

Sarah, involved with her father’s medical practice and an avid reader, has a wider frame of reference about the human condition. She questions the rationale of war and feels that the South’s economics rested on the forced servitude of the majority of its people. Her concerns are the realities of the war, not the romanticizing of it. All lives are important, even those of Union soldiers. In the end, it is her plan that gets the wounded Union soldiers safely out of her father’s clinic in the nick of time.

Peachy is Sarah’s slave, more accurately, friend. The young women are the same age. Taught to read, Peachy has been intellectually exposed to more than her plantation life, and possesses a greater depth of knowledge about the consequences of actions than just common sense. As the war reaches into the heart of Richmond, it is Peachy who tells Sarah about the slaves’ planned rebellion, and her fears for their well-being.

Sam, a twenty-something, handsome and magnetic Union soldier enters Sarah’s life as the Union troops move into Richmond. He is one of a group of Union soldiers banging on Sarah’s front door searching for food and water. Later, he reappears at her home as a wounded soldier under the care of her father. The good doctor’s compassion and medical purpose drive him to treat wounded Union soldiers in spite of the clear danger to himself and his family, if his actions are discovered. As her father’s assistant, Sarah ministers to Sam, and sparks fly between them. Somehow, when the war is over, they will be together.

Peachy combines common sense with insight about relationships. Felicity is suspicious, and molded by the southern credo. Sarah is open to—and embracing life as it unfolds. The war goes on around them. Faithful to the Cause takes place in one household and represents differing points of view about the war by family members and their extended family of slaves. Sarah and Peachy are the hope for the future.