Mollie Brumley's Civil War: Surviving the Guerrilla War in Arkansas

Mollie Brumley, a thirteen-year-old orphan, was living on a farm in the mountainous Ozarks of northwest Arkansas when the Civil War broke out.In a borderland region on the northern periphery of slavery and the western edge of white settlement, her corner of Arkansas saw terrible destruction-but not primarily from fighting between opposing armies.Mollie Brumley's Civil War was one of guerilla warfare and outlawry, shifting loyalties, betrayals real and imagined, and, for some, death by starvation.In telling Mollie's story, drawing largely upon her 1901 autobiography, Theodore Catton offers a rare intimate look at the heroism and desperation of war conducted on the home front-all amidst the anything-but-ordinary romantic adventures of an adolescent who lived during an extraordinary time. In the course of this riveting narrative, Mollie-while still in her teens-falls in love with one Confederate soldier who is lost in battle, marries another who joins the Rebel guerrillas, and leaves the