The Roswell Women

The Roswell Women by Frances Patton Statham
Bocage Books ISBN 0-9675233-0-3 $15.95 TP 400 pp.

From the pages of the American Civil War comes a unique story of 450 Southern women and children, who were arrested for treason by General Sherman for working in the Roswell, Georgia mills, weaving gray wool for Confederate uniforms. In an act decried as brutal by both North and South alike, the penniless young women were uprooted from their families, loaded in boxcars, given nine days’ food rations, and shipped north, never to be heard from again.

Using this actual history, including Sherman’s orders and newspaper accounts, Statham recreates these events in the lives of four fictional Roswell women, who band together to survive and forge a new life for themselves:

Allison Forsyth—the beautiful and regal widow of Captain Coin Forsyth. Imprisoned for a time, she finds a new love, until a ghost from the past threatens to destroy her hard-won freedom.

Madrigal O’Laney—The fiery young redhead, who lures men from both sides of the conflict. But her promise has a price and one man finds it too steep to pay.

Rebecca Smiley—a free black woman, who has groomed Allison, her mistress, to live the life of an aristocrat. More friend than servant, Rebecca is determined to see her mistress in her rightful place again.

Flood Tompkins—Disguised as a man, she survives the war to stake her claim to a fortune, and makes a choice that will change Allison’s life forever.