In 1861 Bethel Erwin of East Tennessee joined the Confederate army with her brother and cousin to escape the dreary life of a woman in the hills. After the murder of her youngest brother by Confederate home guards, the three desert the Rebel army to join the Union. Bethel's experience with her healer grandmother earns her the position of assistant surgeon in the 58th Illinois Infantry.
In Corinth, MS after the battle of Shiloh, Bethel and her brother George befriend a widow with a young child, Anna Harold, and her sister. When Anna is raped by a provost guard Bethel marries Anna to keep her from harm and to further strengthen her charade as a man. The two of them work together in Union military hospitals to care for the wounded until Bethel slips on the ice trying to break up a fight in Nashville.
She suffers a severe head wound and is discharged from the army. Bethel loses her memory and cannot remember anything about the war or Anna Harold who accompanies Bethel back to her home in Tennessee. While going through letters and photographs in the attic she hits her head on a beam and regains her memory. Bethel has no desire return to life as a woman in the Tennessee hills as for years she was treated with respect in the army and the future held no barriers. Anna’s family is wealthy and she asks Bethel to come home with her to attend medical school as the war veteran and her spouse, Tandy Scott.
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Last update: 10-07-2011 05:32 |
| Published in : War |
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