Reminiscent of Cold Mountain and Enemy Women, this is a gripping novel based on the incredible true story of a woman whose life was changed forever by the Civil War.In 1894 Carrie McGavock is an old woman, an old woman who has only her former slave to keep her company...along with the almost 1,500 soldiers buried in her backyard. Years ago, rather than let someone plow over the field where these young men had been buried, Carrie dug them up and buried them in her own personal cemetery. Now, as she walks the rows of the dead, an old soldier appears. It is the man she met that day of the battle that changed everything. The man who came to her house as a wounded soldier and left with her heart. He asks if the cemetery has room for one more.Flash back 30 years to the morning of the Battle of Franklin, a battle that was the bloodiest five hours of the Civil War, with 9,200 casualties that fateful day. Carrie+s home-Carnton Plantation-was taken over by the Confederate army and turned into a hospital; four generals died on her porch, and the pile of amputated limbs reached the second story window. And one soldier came to her house and reawakened in Carrie feelings she thought long dead. Zacharaiah Cashwell was a 32-year-old soldier who had lived a hardscrabble life. When Cashwell, wounded, was brought to her home, Carrie found herself inexplicably drawn to him despite boundaries of class and decorum. The story that ensues between Carrie and Cashwell is just as unforgettable as the battle from which it is drawn.n Carrie McGavock was famous throughout the country as the -Widow of the South+ and the -Keeper of the Dead.+ She spent over 40 years tending the graves of the soldiers and corresponding with their families. Up until now, her story has never been written.n Civil War history buffs will be drawn in by the true-life history that Hicks talks about in the special author+s note section that includes photographs of the real life characters.n The book will be exquisitly packaged with endpapers, interior photographs, and rough front. n Robert Hicks has been active in the music industry in Nashville for 20 years as both a music publisher and artist manager. The driving force behind the preservation and restoration of the historic Carnton Plantation in Tennessee, he stumbled upon the extraordinary role that Carrie McGavock played in and after the Battle of Franklin. This is his first novel.n Robert Hicks lives in Tennessee.