Red Moon at Sharpsburg
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Wells, Rosemary. Red Moon at Sharpsburg. New York: Viking, 2007.
India Moody, daughter of a harness-maker, tells the story of several interlinked Shenandoah Valley families in the years 1861-65. Twelve years old when the Civil War begins, India longs to study natural science. She makes great promise under the supervision of her tutor Emory Trimble, scion of the local aristocracy. But the war devastates their plans. India's father Cy goes off to the wars to serve as a farrier, and goes missing on the field at Antietam (setting of the title scene, in which India searches the battlefield for him). Yankee raiders sweep up and down the Valley, destroying the lives and property of the Trimbles and their neighbors. At last even Emory goes missing from his duties as a Confederate medical officer. Can India scrape together some shreds of dignity and hope from the nightmare of war?