Daniel's Garden

by Meg North

It's June 1862, the second summer of the Civil War. The battle of Shiloh has already claimed 4,000 casualties and 33 regiments have already left Boston for the war-front. President Lincoln has given Massachusetts a quota to fill - 300,000 more are needed at once! Despite the war raging around him, Daniel Stuart couldn't care less. He's a rich kid just trying to get through his freshman term at Harvard. What does it matter when he's worried about passing "Paradise Lost" exams? Well, his three closest college friends definitely have soldier glory on their minds. Andrew urges Daniel to attend a recruitment rally. Matthew goes along with his feisty brother, and David finds a spiritual reason to join the Federal army. Meanwhile, Daniel's supposedly ideal home life isn't so rosy. His older brother has career plans for him to become a lawyer, and his mother also urges him to take responsibility for his life. Daniel blows them off by escaping to his garden. Only a young Irish maid seems to understand his turmoil over his life decisions. Should he stay and commit to a dull career path as a lawyer? Or, should he follow his college friends to war? What would you choose?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Civil War

324 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2010

About the author

My first story was about a Halloween party, written when I was four. Since then, it's just been one after another. I'm constantly working, happily juggling two or three projects. A childhood of musical theatre and plenty of films gave me insight into the past. My stories are inspired by Gothic authors, tragic romances, the Victorian era, foggy London, and Byronic heroes. I also adore a touch of whimsical fantasy as well.

Reviews

[Jestes Dallas William · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really a good book, it is what made me start liking historical fiction in the first place. It is told excellently and it shows the civil war from a very human point of view, but it doesn't hesitate to portray the battles as intense and insane.

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding Civil War novel.

[ᝰ.ᐟ Ⓟⓐⓘⓢⓛⓔⓨ ᝰ.ᐟ · Rating 4 out of 5]

` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
➕ Young Daniel Stuart, a quiet, poem-reading college boy from Boston (weaned on money and his father’s intentions that he become a lawyer in a respectable Massachusetts office after college) answers the call to war in 1862 to enter the flood tide of Union blue headed to Fort Ellsworth in Virginia. With Milton’s Paradise Lost in his pocket and a daguerreotype of his straight-laced (and disapproving) family tucked in his haversack, he turns his back on everything safe and familiar to take his place alongside three Harvard college buddies on their way to battle: Andrew, the courageous private with a short temper and a quick trigger; David, the soft-tempered poet and faithful reader of Bible passages; and Matthew, the spectacle-wearing map-reader who seems always to be stumbling just behind the other three, wiping steam from his glasses and murmuring facts about the location of the Army in grey.

This novel takes us right into the marching, the battles, and the fear, and comes with a love story. I found it emotionally authentic and beautifully told. ♡