Toward a Distant Shore: Civil War Engulfs the Tidewater

Owners of Mt. Pleasant Plantation had farmed the rich James River soil for over two hundred years. None of its residents, white or black, could picture any other way of life. Then, within the space of a year, the Civil War blew all of them adrift like dandelion seeds, to land who knew where. Some would take root and prosper, others would struggle to survive the rest of their lives.
Charles, the only literate slave on the plantation, was the first to bolt, much to the astonishment of the masters who had given him freedom of movement most slaves never enjoyed. He lost no time making use of his carpentry skills to forge a new life amid the ruins of fire-ravaged Hampton. Falling in love was the farthest thing from his mind.
Maria, the cook, suffered terribly when her last remaining daughter, twelve year-old Belinda, was sold away just when she needed her mother’s protection more than ever. Then Maria’s husband was torn from her, with no hope of seeing him again. Little wonder the Mistress thought she was sullen.
A year into the war, the owner’s large family found themselves suddenly homeless and wound up scattered wherever they could find someone to take them in. Fenton Garnett, the owner’s headstrong granddaughter, just seventeen, relished her new freedom in war-torn Richmond. She looked fearlessly into a new and very different future, that is, until her beloved crossed the Potomac with Lee’s invading army.
These stories and more are told against the backdrop of the war in the Tidewater: the Monitor and Merrimac, Yankee-occupied Norfolk, the Peninsula Campaign, the siege of Suffolk, the Seven Days Battle, and Gettysburg. Although nearly all of the people are real, some of their stories are imagined