BOOKS BY ROBERTA
Rebecca’S Soliloquy: A True Story
Rebecca Moffatt finds a wounded Union officer on her familys farm and nurses him back to healthnot too remarkable, except that her husband is a Confederate officer away at war! Little does she know that her actions will set into motion a series of events that will see her making a journey of over 250 miles from Obion County, Tennessee, to St. Louis, Missouri.
She travels mostly on foot with an older couple who were former slaves on the farm, an old horse, and a two-wheeled dogcart. Her mission is to get her wounded husband out of prison camp there and bring him home. But at what cost?
Though there are many volumes of well-documented facts about the Civil War, there are untold thousands of stories of individual struggles and courage of that time. Most are lost to history, but this one has survived, the story being told orally from generation to generation.
This true story of grim determination, courage, and the strength of the bonds of love is so compelling that it has survived to be told 150 years later.
TESTIMONIALS
Rebecca’s Soliloquy. By Roberta Nee Adams. Historical fiction. Map, 142 pp., 2014, LifeRich, www.liferichpublishing.com, $12.99 softcover.
A cache of 104 Civil War letters discovered hidden in a fireplace mantel in an old farmhouse provides the material for this love story of a woman's strength and determination.
Rebecca Moffatt's story is told through these letters. Her husband Augustus is a Confederate captain severely wounded at the Battle of Atlanta, captured, and sent to McDowell Medical College Hospital in St. Louis.
After not hearing from her husband for over two years, Rebecca learns from a Union sergeant that Augustus has been severely wounded and may not recover.
In her husband's absence, she has cared for Union Maj. Stephen Gardner, who was near death when discovered on her farm. Her kindness is repaid when the major provides Rebecca with passes and a prisoner release form for her captive husband.
Determined to free him and tend to his wounds, Rebecca and two of her elderly slaves, Joseph and Belle, travel 250 miles from Obion County, Tennessee, to St. Louis, Mo. The hardships encountered on their journey, including the theft of their mule and the murder of Joseph, form the nucleus of this story.
The events on the journey are also the framework for a lost Civil War love saga. Author Roberta Nee Adams’ late mother-in-law, Alma Nelle Moffatt Rynearson, lived on Rebecca's original farm, provided the verbal history to her grandchildren and sparked the author's interest in writing this story.
While wars may deprive families of material goods, they cannot take true love from a home. Thousands of similar love stories have been lost to history, but Rebecca's story is meant to serve as a model for all the loved ones destroyed, physically and mentally, by the ravages of war.
Adams tells Rebecca’s story in very readable, engaging prose that never leaves human emotions on the sidelines. The question she ultimately addresses is "At what cost is war?"
Rebecca's journey had costs. Thousands of soldiers, North and South, lost limbs, lives and fortunes. A nation's humanity was severely threatened as fathers, sons, daughters and wives paid a fearful cost.
This book is recommended for those readers who wish to explore one woman's love, grit and grief as an example of war’s costs.
Wayne L. Wolf
TESTIMONIALS
What a clever way to tell a story (a true story); through letters written by one woman to her beloved husband, Augustus, who is away at war. While the Civil War was a trying time for both soldiers and civilians, many civilians found themselves faced with decisions that would change the course of their lives. Rebecca Moffatt, the wife of a Confederate Officer, found herself in just such a situation. During her husband’s absence, Rebecca discovers a wounded Yankee soldier in her barn on the family farm in Tennessee. She is faced with the most heart wrenching decision of her life. Should she kill this Yankee soldier or should she nurse him back to health? Time goes by and Rebecca’s letters are returned to her. Not knowing if Augustus is dead or alive, she sets out to find him. Upon learning that he was badly wounded near Atlanta and had been taken to a prison camp in St Louis, Rebecca decides she will just go get him and bring him home. Not an easy task in those days but she is a determined woman. With her two companions, former slaves who decided to stay on the family farm, she loads up the dogcart pulled by their old horse, Rusty. The trip is approximately two hundred and fifty miles and most of it will be made on foot in order to spare the horse. An amazing journey and display of courage and determination.
Gwendolyn Gray
TESTIMONIALS
Rebecca’s Soliloquy by Roberta Nee Adams
In the heat of the Civil War, Rebecca Moffat is struggling to keep her farm and home together. A wounded Union soldier shows up at her farm and she allows him to be nursed back to health. This sets in motion a series of events that allows Rebecca to find her husband in a Union prison camp and bring him home. It is a long and hard journey for all those helping Rebecca.
This true story is told by the letters Rebecca writes to her husband, a woman who loves her husband very much. Grab your tissue for the ending. (Review by Melissa Gray Thomason)
Valley Planet Review 12-2014