SOLDIERS—A MATTER OF THE HEART PART 3

 By Catherine Ulrich Brakefield

Foreign Correspondent Joe Galloway says the Vietnam War shaped his life as it did for many men of his generation. He arrived in Vietnam in 1965 when America’s optimism for a speedy end to this war was high. 

“During the entire war, the United States would fly three million sorties and dropped nearly eight million tons of bombs, four times the tonnage dropped during World War II…” (Home of Heroes, Vietnam War, Galloway, see below.)

The North Vietnamese planned to slowly grind down the United States’ commitment to the war. In an interview with Galloway, Major General Phuong stated how the Communist Party infiltrated American culture with their propaganda (We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, pg. 50).

By the late 1960s, the anti-war protest intensified, and popular news anchors like Walter Cronkite enjoyed emphasizing his viewpoint, “The war in Vietnam was unwinnable.” The Communist propaganda efforts infiltrated strong inroads into America’s homes.

The Communist leaders studied the news better than most Americans. General Giap and other Communist generals listened to President Lyndon Johnson on television, saying, “We were not there to defeat North Vietnam, only to protect and preserve the South Vietnamese government.” Giap said, “Our goal was to win” (We Are Soldiers Still, pg. 32).

American newscasters and the movie industry loved to spout out the negative regarding the Vietnam War. The Communist Party was exhilarated! 

What a great morale boost for our fighting G.I.s who were bleeding and dying on the battlefields—and their families (We Were Soldiers Once…And Young pg. 334). In a journal entry dated November 20, 1965 Westmorland wrote: “I had my monthly background session with the press…I read a wire that I received from the Secretary of Defense quoting headlines from the Washington Post and Star implying the retreat and withdrawal of the 1st Calvary Division.”

 In my February 19th article, I wrote about this victory by the 1st Calvary Division; an estimated 3,561 North Vietnamese estimated killed versus 305 Americans (We were Soldiers Once, pg. 368). 

This reminds me of what David wrote, “A thousand may fall at your side…but it shall not come near you” (Psalm 90:7 NKJV and all subsequent verses). 

However, President Johnson forbids the American forces from following the retreating army into Cambodia. “We wanted to follow the enemy in hot pursuit…General Kinnard said, “I was always taught as an officer that in a pursuit situation you continue to pursue until you either kill the enemy or he surrenders.” (We Were Soldiers Once… Pg. 370)

 Westmorland continues regarding his press briefing, explaining to the reporters, “Stories such as those in the Washington newspapers were having the following effect: 1. Distorting the picture at home and lowering the morale of people who are emotionally concerned (wives). 2. Lowering morale of troops.” (We Were Soldiers Once pg. 334) 

Westmorland did hold a few important facts from the news. “During Captain Matt Dillon’s portion of the briefing he mentioned a report by our men that they had seen the body of an enemy soldier they suspected was Chinese—he was large and was dressed in a uniform different from that of the NVA…Westmoreland reacted angrily and forcefully, telling us all. ‘You will never mention anything about Chinese soldiers in South Vietnam! Never!” (We Were Soldiers Once… pg. 335)

Galloway stated in an interview with Gary Lillie of the Veteran Radio Broadcast in 2009, “Many Vietnam veterans came home to NO welcome, no respect; the media, the movies portrayed Vietnam veterans as losers and Lieutenant Dan and a lot of bullshit like that, and it’s just wrong,”. 

An agreement was formally signed on January 27, 1973, by Dr. Henry Kissinger on behalf of the United States and Special Adviser Le Duc Thoi on behalf of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam at the International Conference Center in Paris, ending the war and restoring peace in Vietnam.  

The people of South Vietnam were guaranteed the right to determine their future without outside interference.

“Within 60 days from this Saturday, all Americans held prisoners of war throughout Indochina will be released. There will be the fullest possible accounting for all of those who are missing in action. During the same 60-day period, all American forces will be withdrawn from South Vietnam.” President Nixon said in his Address to the Nation Announcing an Agreement on Ending the War in Vietnam.

Throughout the negotiations, President Thieu and other representatives of the Republic of Vietnam were closely consulted. The settlement met the goals and full support of President Thieu and the Government of the Republic of Vietnam, and all other allies affected. 

Then in March 1975 the North Vietnamese launched offensives in the Central Highland and Northern South Vietnam. 

Congress refused President Ford’s request to send military aid to South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese soldiers fought bravely; however, when counterattacks failed, soldiers started to desert to protect their families. 

The North Vietnamese had no intention of honoring the Paris Peace Agreement. This was a ploy to get the Americans out of Vietnam. After all, the Americans had fought so bravely that they took for every American life twelve North Vietnamese with them! There was no way Communist North Vietnamese could win, playing fair.

        More than 10,000 South Vietnamese scrambled for a seat on US helicopters. Desperate, some tried to flee on already-crowded boats on the Saigon River.

Years later, General Vo Nguyen Gia, one of the North Vietnamese commanders, said, “I would send five million or ten million to their deaths in this war. We would have fought on for ten, twenty years, fifty years if that’s what it took to get the foreigners out of our country.” 

General Giap said, “America was the invader, the aggressor, while the North Vietnamese fought a ‘people’s war, waged by the entire people.’”  

What Generals Vo Nguyen Gia and General Giap wanted was accomplished by the Paris Peace Accord. Americans had left. So why did North Vietnam attack peaceful South Vietnam?

You would think Generals Vo Nguyen Gia and Giap must love their countrymen. Not true. As stated in We Were Soldiers Still (pg 148), “Highway 21 in 1975 was dubbed, ‘the Trail of Tears’ as a large, panicked horde of some 200,000 Vietnamese civilian refugees and South Vietnamese soldiers attempting to flee the Central Highlands was ambushed, harassed, and chopped to pieces by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces before they could reach the coast in a scene that would be played out all over the country in the coming weeks.”

Numerous young Americans have been taught to think communism, Nazism, and socialism are perfectly fine. The North Vietnamese civilians knew differently. Many fled to South Vietnam (as told in The Boat People) to escape the Communist regime. Now, it was the North and South Vietnamese who fled by boats to escape the fangs of communism. These Vietnamese proved through their actions the truth about the heart of the American soldier. 

        After all the propaganda inflicted upon our soldiers, all the negative reporting, all the negative movies, and all the accusations—the truth exploded onto our television sets as seen by the South Vietnamese actions. 

        The Vietnamese civilians took to the open seas by rafts, boats, or anything else that floats. 

        Our Navy and other American boats scooped many up. The Vietnamese were confident if they were seen by the American ships, they knew they would be received with food, blankets, and medical help—not the guns of the Communist.

        In those ten years, our American soldiers had given the Vietnamese a reprieve, ten years from the icy fingers and the prison walls of communism.

        Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese took dangerous journeys by boat to escape the regime oftentimes facing pirates, and starvation.   

        The terror of the Communist forcing them into reeducation internment camps was the constant horror that faced them. They left by boats and throughout the weeks and months following, thousands of Vietnamese died at sea. By the grace of God, many were rescued by American ships. Samaritan’s Purse was one of these ships who helped in this relief effort. Stateside, churches found homes for these boat families yearning for the freedom to choose their destiny. 

        “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40).

        “Over the next 20 years, with growing oppressiveness and violence, the Communist government began conflict with Cambodia, leaving (the remaining) Vietnamese citizens fearful for their lives. From 1972 to 1992, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese took extremely dangerous journeys by boat in efforts to escape the regime.” The Vietnamese Boat People, see below. 

   

 The American public was blinded by the lies of godless communism. Jesus was quick to call someone who acts without conscience and who has a deceitful heart what they are. “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and father of it” (John 8:44 emphasis added).

        Our soldiers are enjoying the fruits of their labors with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in paradise. But their blood cries out to us from the very earth, saying, “The American public was lied to. The Communist Party is alive and well in America. Their propaganda took our moral rights throughout the American household and lied about and crucified the accomplishments of my comrades.”

        Check this out yourself; allow your college or high school student to tell you what their liberal professor is teaching about the Vietnam War. Tell them America did not lose the war, that the Communist North Vietnamese lied and signed a peace agreement they NEVER planned to keep and then murdered their people a year later in a bloody massacre. 

Remember, someday your student will be voting. Will the United States of America be around to fight for the oppressed or to house the next persecuted civilians of the Communist Party?

Galloway explained it best to Lillie in 2009, “It’s not so much about the war they fought but about the lives that they have lived and the good that they have done for their communities and our country since that war. They came home and did some good stuff and there are some famous people and successful and they are all giving individuals. And there ain’t a loser among them.”

The only losers are the American people blindsided by Communist propaganda, which is still alive to this day. We have done our great Vietnam serviceman and woman a terrible injustice. 

“Lance’s body arrived by plane…He had fought in an action that was not termed a war; he had died thousands of miles from his beloved country; his blood and the blood of his men, whom he had loved so much, had now become part of the soil of Vietnam, and there were no bands, no parades, no anything—just three desolate people standing beside his coffin” (We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, pg. 363).

God blessed Americans with unlimited freedoms. We can’t imagine a world where we are prohibited from worshiping, working, and voicing our viewpoints.  Paul says the truth most eloquently in Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 

Our All-American G.I.s gave more to those Vietnamese than their time. Some gave their lives, and others gave them the heart to hope. 

“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

That hope for a better tomorrow kept the Vietnamese going. They bravely faced starvation, and depravity to attain the opportunity for freedom to worship and choose their professions and their destiny. They would never have known this without knowing our American soldiers—It Is a Matter of the Heart. 

        “Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). 

        Through my factual historical romances, you can learn how God led America to greatness throughout the years. Here’s a sneak preview.

The Destiny Series: Get whisked into the lives of the McConnell women in this historical Christian fiction series. Follow these strong women from the days of the Civil War through the epic battle with Hitler. Discover what has inspired readers worldwide as these four books are brought together as a set for the first time.  "The message of the Destiny series is even more applicable today than when it first released. Praying for America’s repentance and to embrace God like never before."   Debra B.

Catherine is the award-winning author of Wilted

Dandelions, Swept into Destiny, Destiny’s Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, Waltz with Destiny, and Love's Final Sunrise. She has written two pictorial history books, The Lapeer Area and Eastern Lapeer, and short stories for Guideposts Books, CrossRiver Media Group, Revell Books, and Bethany House Publishers. Catherine and her husband of fifty-two years live on a ranch in Michigan and have two adult children, five grandchildren, four Arabian horses, three dogs, three cats, and six chickens. See CatherineUlrichBrakefield.com 

References:

https://homeofheroes.com/heroes-stories/vietnam-war/joseph-l-galloway/ 

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/ending-vietnam 

https://adst.org/2014/07/the-vietnamese-boat-people/ 

We Were Soldiers Once…And Young by Lt. Gen Harold G. Moore (Ret) and Joseph L. Galloway Ballantine Books. New York, October 1992

We Are Soldiers Still by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret) and Joseph L. Galloway. Harper Collins New York, 2008

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/197496/operation-homecoming/ 

Newsweek Magazine The New Americans, May 12, 1975

WEDDING SHIVAREES - TRADITIONS OF THE PAST

by Cynthia Roemer

Weddings. What a joy. I was excited to help my oldest son and daughter-in-law plan their wedding as they prepared to take their vows three years ago. Nowadays, wedding celebrations include banquets, toasts, honeymoons, and photo shoots. But there was a time when...

Newlyweds (Public Domain)

It’s almost a forgotten bit of wedding traditions–the shivaree. If you’ve never heard of one, you’re not alone. A shivaree was a raucous and fun-loving way to celebrate a newly married couple’s nuptials. It took place days, weeks, even months following the actual wedding. The element of surprise was key.

Though more prevalent in the 1800’s, my parents have told stories of shivarees that took place in their growing up years (mid-1900s). According to them, the shivaree began with a late-night wake-up call of banging pans and noise-makers. Then the group would serenade the couple with songs such as Let Me Call You Sweetheart. Afterward, the late-night visitors would join the couple for snacks and desserts, often provided by the newlyweds.

Roberto Nickson on upsplash

Nineteenth-Century Shivarees

Shivarees of the nineteenth century were much bolder and at times down right ornery. I didn’t realize just how ornery until I did some research for a scene in my novel, Under Prairie Skies. Set in 1855, the scene has my main characters, Chad and Charlotte, and a host of others, traveling by the light of the moon to the unsuspecting couple’s home.

There, the bride and groom are awakened by rifle fire and banging pans. The barefoot groom is then blindfolded and spirited away in his nightshirt into the timber and left to fend for himself until daybreak. All the while, his poor, bewildered bride is wailing and calling his name. Not the best way to wish a new couple a joyous marriage! I won’t share any spoilers by telling how the scene evolves, but I will say Chad’s actions further endear him to Charlotte.

Will Steward on upsplash - fire in woods

Shivaree Fears

Though I’ve not participated in or even known anyone to be shivareed, my husband attended one for his cousin when he was a boy. So, when we married, he had me more than a little nervous we would end up with his extended family outside our bedroom window some dark night banging pans and serenading us.

My fears never came to fruition, but all that first summer, I did a lot of baking and learned to be a very light sleeper!

Cynthia Roemer is an inspirational, award-winning author who enjoys planting seeds of hope into the hearts of readers. Raised in the cornfields of rural Illinois. She enjoys spinning tales set in the backdrop of the mid-1800's prairie and Civil War era. Cynthia feels blessed the Lord has fulfilled her life-long dream of being a published novelist. It's her prayer that her stories will encourage readers in their faith. She and her husband reside on their farm in central Illinois. Visit Cynthia online at: www.cynthiaroemer.com

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Florida’s Featured Author ~ Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Quick Bio

Born ~ August 8, 1896 in Washington, D.C.
Parents ~ Ida May (née Traphagen) and Arthur Frank Kinnan
Married ~ Charles Rawlings (m. 1919; div. 1933); Norton Baskin (m. 1941)
Died ~ December 14, 1953 (aged 57)
Buried ~ Antioch Cemetery, Island Grove, Florida

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is best known for two books ~ the best-selling Cross Creek, which the New York Times called “an autobiographical regional study,” and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Yearling. 

Both books were adapted into major films.

Before settling into her remote Florida orange grove in 1928, Ms. Rawlings and her then-husband both worked for the Rochester (New York) Journal-American. Ms. Rawlings wrote a syndicated column called “Songs of the Housewife.” Before that both Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings wrote for the Courier Journal while living in Louisville, Kentucky.

During her years at Cross Creek, Ms. Rawlings “felt a profound and transforming connection to the region and the land.…[She] filled several notebooks with descriptions of the animals, plants, Southern dialect, and recipes, and she used these descriptions in her writings” (MKR).

Fiction ~ The Yearling

Set in the Big Scrub (the Cross Creek backwoods), the novel is about a young boy, Jody Baxter, who adopts a pet deer in the post-Civil War years.

The setting “becomes a character in itself…[as Ms.] Rawlings exposes how nature can be both a comforting escape and a cruel force of destruction and death” (Theme).

The Yearling, published in March 1938, sold more than 250,000 copies in 1938, making it the best-selling novel in the U.S. The following year, it was in seventh place.

More Accolades:

• Selected for the Book of the Month Club (April 1938); 
• Won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1939); 
• Translated into about thirty other languages.

The novel was adapted into a film which was released by MGM in 1946. It won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction (Color) and Best Cinematography (Color).

Claude Jarman, Jr. won the Academy Juvenile Award for “outstanding child actor of 1946” and received a miniature statuette for his portrayal of Jody Baxter.

Other Academy Award nominations include:

• Sidney Franklin (MGM) for Best Motion Picture; 
• Clarence Brown for Best Directing; 
• Gregory Peck for Best Actor (playing Jody’s father); 
• Jane Wyman for Best Actress (playing Jody’s mother); 
• Harold F. Kress for Best Film Editing

Non-fiction ~ Cross Creek

Both Cross Creek and a companion book called Cross Creek Cookery were published in 1942. 

The former, a bestseller, sold more than 500,000 copies.

It was also a Book of the Month Club selection and was sent to World War II servicemen. 

A film adaptation starring Mary Steenburgen as Ms. Rawlings released in 1983. Though not a box office success, the movie garnered numerous awards including four Academy Award nominations for the following: 

• Rip Torn for Best Supporting Actor;
• Alfre Woodard for Best Supporting Actress;
• Joe I. Tompkins for Best Costume Design;
• Leonard Rosenman for Best Original Score.

Martin Ritt was nominated for the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d’Or Award (the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film).

Alfre Woodard won Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture in the NAACP Image Awards.

The two Young Artist Awards nominations included Best Family Feature Motion Picture and Dana Hill for Best Young Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.

The National Board of Review Awards awarded the movie 9th place in their Top Ten Films list.

Ms. Rawlings’ Legacy

• At age 15 ~ won a prize for her short story, “The Reincarnation of Miss Hetty”;
• 1918 ~ graduated with a degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison;
• 1956 ~ won a Newbery Honor for The Secret River, a children’s fantasy novel, published after her death;
• 1986 ~ inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame;
• 1989 ~ won the Florida Folk Heritage Award;
• 2008 ~ honored with a USPS stamp;
• 2009 ~ named a Great Floridian, a program which honors those who make major contributions to the state.

"Through her writing she endeared herself 

to the people of the world."

Inscription on Ms. Rawlings' Monument

You can visit Ms. Rawlings’ “cracker-style home and farm, where she wrote her Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Yearling and other wonderful works of fiction” which “has been restored and is preserved as it was when she lived here” (State Park).

See the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park website for more info on visiting the historic farm and trails.

Your Turn

Though I'm not a Florida native, I've lived most of my adult life in the Sunshine State. And I love it here! 

I also love authors who write about Florida's history. 

What authors do you love who write about your favorite region of the world?

Johnnie Alexander is a bestselling, award-winning novelist of more than thirty works of fiction in multiple genres. She is both traditionally and indie-published, serves as board secretary for the Mosaic Collection, LLC (an indie-author group) and faculty chair for the Mid-South Christian Writers Conference; co-hosts Writers Chat, a weekly online show; and contributes to the HHHistory.com blog. With a heart for making memories, Johnnie is a fan of classic movies, stacks of books, and road trips. Connect with her at JohnnieAlexander.com.

Photos

Claude Jarman, Jr. ~ Publicity photo of Claude Jarman Jr taken for film Intruder in the Dust (1949). Public domain.

Cross Creek ~ By Moni3 - Own work (Original text: Self-made), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67543685

Cross Creek movie poster ~ Fair use.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ~ Public domain.

Sources

MKR ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Kinnan_Rawlings

State Park ~ https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/marjorie-kinnan-rawlings-historic-state-park

Theme ~ https://www.supersummary.com/the-yearling/themes/

Hidden Treasure and Hometown Heroes: The Surprising Origins of Small-Town Hospitals

Many hospitals in small towns today are either closing or becoming part of a larger conglomerate. In some areas of the country, this has led to what’s called a “medical desert”—where patients cannot access certain medical services, especially trauma care, within a 60-mile radius. While this is difficult and, in some cases, tragic in today’s developed society, it is somewhat reflective of medical care in earlier years. Smaller communities in the 19th century often relied on local doctors' homes, churches, or charity-run facilities before hospitals were formally established.

Although every community was different, the two hospitals in my hometown of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, serve as examples of how “modern” facilities came to many towns.

Hopkinsville is located in the western part of the state in the area known as the Pennyroyal Region, and is about seventy miles northwest of Nashville, Tennessee. Although the town had an infirmary in the late 1800s, its first hospital developed shortly after the turn of the century following the heartbreak of a local doctor.

Hidden Treasure and a Broken Hip

Dr. Edward Stuart had graduated from St. Louis Medical College in 1851. He practiced medicine from his home in the little village of Fairview, about 10 miles from Hopkinsville, for 67 years. Because of his dedication, he dreamed of building a hospital in the area.

Jennie Stuart, beloved wife
 who inspired and unknowingly
 helped fund a new hospital

But when his beloved wife Jennie fell and broke her hip while in Hopkinsville, his dream became personal. Initially, she was treated at the primitive infirmary. Despite his own physical handicap, Edward climbed steep stairs to visit her daily.

Jennie asked him during his visits if he had her keys, which she had worn tied around her waist. Several days later, she succumbed to her injuries. When the doctor used Jennie’s keys to enter a locked room in their house where she spent time “puttering around,” he learned why she’d been so concerned. She had earned money from selling eggs, butter, and milk, and had invested gold coins the doctor gave her. Hiding her treasures behind gas pipes and pictures, and in the back of a closet, all labeled with dates and amounts, Jennie had accumulated around $25,000.

Dr. Stuart donated the money, and some additional funds, to build a hospital in her memory. Jennie Stuart Memorial Hospital was incorporated in 1913 and completed in 1914. It was a small brick building with twelve private beds and four wards of four beds each. Dr. Stuart planted trees on the lawns and transplanted roses from Jennie’s garden.

Patients were charged $4.50 a day for private rooms, or $3.00 a day for beds in a ward. The first superintendent called it a place where “the orphan child or the poor man or woman may have the same care that is provided for their more fortunate fellows.”

Care for the Unserved

Like most institutions during segregation, however, the hospital was not available to people of color. In 1944, Dr. Philip Carruthers Brooks Sr. opened a second hospital, specifically for African-Americans, in his hometown.

Dr. Brooks, who opened
a hospital for African-Americans

Brooks earned his medical degree from Howard University and hoped to set up a medical practice in Toledo, Ohio. But he needed $2,000, so he returned to Hopkinsville hoping to borrow the money. With no assets to secure a loan, he waited tables until he found a job treating patients for $150 a month.

According to a 1959 interview, he walked three miles to his position as a staff doctor at a hospital for mental patients outside the city. At night, he walked throughout Hopkinsville making house calls.

But Blacks in the region had to travel more than an hour to obtain care for more serious conditions. Recognizing this need, Brooks built an addition to his home and opened Brooks Armorial Hospital in 1944.

From the beginning, he served any patient in need of care. In 1958, Brooks received national attention when he treated a white race car driver injured in an accident. After the man waited more than an hour at Jennie Stuart to be seen, he went to Brooks Memorial and was treated within 10 minutes for cracked ribs and multiple lacerations. A complaint against the white hospital filed with the state medical board was reported in Jet Magazine.

This baby bassinet from Brooks Memorial
Hospital is displayed at the Pennyroyal
Area Museum in Hopkinsville, KY

Brooks Memorial Hospital became a 30-room hospital and drew patients from throughout Kentucky and surrounding states. After Jennie Stuart integrated in the 1960s, Brooks became the first black physician on staff there. However, he continued to operate his hospital until 1977, when financial issues and the lack of need for two hospitals led to its closure.

Have you ever wondered how the hospitals near you started? You may discover an interesting tale, even if it doesn’t involve hidden treasure.

Sources:

“A Country Doctor Who Dreamed of Helping Others,” History - Jennie Stuart Health

“Brooks, Phillip C.,” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database, accessed March 4, 2025, https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/797.

Uncommon History: Alissa Keller on Hopkinsville’s Brooks Memorial Hospital | WKMS

The healing legacy of Dr. Philip Carruthers Brooks, HoptownChronicle.org

Multi-award-winning author Marie Wells Coutu finds beauty in surprising places, like undiscovered treasures, old houses, and gnarly trees. All three books in her Mended Vessels series, contemporary stories based on the lives of biblical women, have won awards in multiple contests. She is currently working on historical romances set in her native western Kentucky in the 1930s and ‘40s. An unpublished novel, Shifting Currents, placed second in the inspirational category of the nationally recognized Maggie Awards. Learn more at www.MarieWellsCoutu.com.

Her historical short story, “All That Glitters,” was included in the 2023 Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction collection and is now available free when you sign up for Marie's newsletter here. In her newsletter, she shares about her writing, historical tidbits, recommended books, and sometimes recipes.

From the Potato Famine to Hollywood – How Irish Actors Won Over America

By Kathy Kovach

The 19th Century was not kind to the Irish. After suffering under British rule in their own country, they were plagued with bad crops that destroyed their staple nutrition, the potato. As a result, thousands fled their beloved homeland for America. After filtering through Ellis Island, they unfortunately found that the new country wasn’t any more hospitable than the one they had left. A fact made more volatile as the population of New York City became roughly a quarter Irish.

Many getting off the boat were emaciated, diseased, and worse yet, spoke funny. They brought their religion with them, and the Protestant versus Catholic battle continued on this side of the pond, just as it had in Ireland. “No Irish Need Apply” signs popped up faster than shamrocks, and the immigrants fought a new battle that felt hauntingly familiar to their old one.

With no more choices left, they soldiered on, carving their place in American culture. Few jobs were offered, but they took them gladly. One such career path was in the entertainment industry. Broadway offered backstage work and a smattering of menial onstage acting roles.

Eventually, Irish American actors, musicians, and others in the field made their way to Hollywood. However, the stigma was still there to some extent, even in the early 20th Century.

The Bells of St. Mary's, 1945, Ingrid Bergman and Bing Crosby

In a conscious effort to glamorize the Irish lifestyle, movies were produced depicting lovely, smiling, and often singing and dancing characters, many in stalwart yet carefree tableaus. Charismatic actors such as Pat O’Brien, known as “Hollywood’s Irishman in residence” by the press, Spencer Tracy, and Bing Crosby played amiable priests in order to destigmatize the Catholic lifestyle. Gene Kelly took us to Brigadoon, a delightful movie about an Irish village that only appears once every one hundred years. John Wayne, showing off his Northern Irish roots, let us see what customs were like in 1920s Ireland in The Quiet Man.

The Quiet Man, 1952, John Wayne

Hollywood would go on to show the seedier side of the Irish in movies such as the 2002 offering Gangs of New York, but thanks to the groundwork laid early on, Irish American no longer harbors the stigma it once had—for which the drop of Blarney in my blood is thankful.

To see the long list of actors born since the mid-1850s, check out this article on the Irish American Journey site.

Titanic: Legacy of Betrayal

A TIME-SLIP NOVEL

A secret. A key. Much was buried on the Titanic, but now it's time for resurrection.

Follow two intertwining stories a century apart. 1912 - Matriarch Olive Stanford protects a secret after boarding the Titanic that must go to her grave. 2012 - Portland real estate agent Ember Keaton-Jones receives the key that will unlock the mystery of her past... and her distrusting heart.

To buy: Amazon

Kathleen E. Kovach is a Christian romance author published traditionally through Barbour Publishing, Inc. as well as indie. Kathleen and her husband, Jim, raised two sons while living the nomadic lifestyle for over twenty years in the Air Force. Now planted in northeast Colorado, she's a grandmother and a great-grandmother—though much too young for either. Kathleen has been a longstanding member of American Christian Fiction Writers. An award-winning author, she presents spiritual truths with a giggle, proving herself as one of God's peculiar people.

Website
Blog With A Giggle
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The Cotton Road

Guest Post by Sherry Shindelar

I have been an avid student of the Civil War for a couple decades. However, until I started researching for my last book, I had no clue that the Yankees ever invaded Texas. But they did in November 1863. Why? Because of cotton. By 1863, the Federal blockade of the Confederate coastline was fairly secure, and Texas became the golden gateway for funding the Confederacy.

Cotton from Arkansas, western Louisiana, and East Texas traveled the Cotton Road. This dusty trail ran from the railroad terminus in Alleyton, Texas (about seventy miles west of Houston) by way of King’s Ranch near Corpus Christi to Brownsville and across the Rio Grande to Matamoros, Mexico, the largest cotton market in the world during the war. In regard to commercial activity, it rivaled pre-war New Orleans or Baltimore.

A young teamster wrote that from the watchtower at King’s Ranch, the main stop on the way to Matamoros, he could see hundreds of wagons on the road at one time, a long train of dust rising up as they traveled toward the Rio Grande.

At some points, the trail was almost a mile wide, and more than one hundred miles of it was desert with no water. Puffs of cotton clung to the sagebrush and cacti along the way and lingered for years after the war.

When the cotton reached Matamoros, it was loaded onto steamboats and/or wagons owned by Mexicans and transported to the mouth of the Rio Grande at the Gulf of Mexico. International ships from Britain, France, and other countries hovered there, sometimes hundreds at a time, waiting to fill their hulls . And the Yankees couldn’t stop them. If a Federal ship fired on a ship of another nationality, it could have been considered an act of war.

By 1863, cotton, which had sold for .10 cents a pound in 1860 sold for as much as $1.89 a pound, and one bale averaged 450 – 500 pounds. In just one week in August, twenty thousand pounds of gunpowder arrived in Brownsville, purchased with proceeds from the sale of cotton.

That’s why the Federal Army invaded Brownsville in early November 1863. Their mission was to stop or at least seriously hinder the cotton trade. The Yankees reached the city without resistance. However, they found a meager one hundred and fifty bales of cotton on the Texas side of the river and could only gaze at the more than ten thousand bales stacked along the Mexican wharves. The Rebs had moved or destroyed everything of value.

The invasion lasted for several months and forced the Confederates to find new trails for the cotton shipments, hauling the loads via San Antonio to Eagle Pass and Loredo. Unfortunately, the Yankees only netted a hundred or so bales.

Cotton continued to reign until the war efforts in the East bled the Confederacy dry. But for those few months at the end of 1863, hopes were high, especially amongst the two regiments of Texas cavalry fighting for the Union, soldiers who had left their state to avoid being forced into the Reb army. These men returned with the Federal troops in November 1863 to restore Texas to the Union and wreak havoc on the Cotton Road. 

Originally from Tennessee, Sherry loves to take her readers into the past. A romantic at heart, she is an avid student of the Civil War and the Old West. When she isn't busy writing, she is an English professor working to pass on her love of writing to her students. Sherry is an award-winning writer: 2023 ACFW Genesis finalist, 2021 & 2023 Maggie finalist, and 2022 Crown finalist. She currently resides in Minnesota with her husband of forty years. She has three grown children and three grandchildren. 

Texas Divided releases March 25. https://www.amazon.com/Texas-Divided-Lone-Star-Redemption-ebook/dp/B0DBM4WMRN/

Can she trust the man who ruined her life to rescue her future? 

Driven by the expectation of becoming a proper lady, Morning Fawn is determined to escape her uncle's plantation and return to her adoptive Comanche tribe. But with each failed attempt, her hopes dwindle. The last thing she needs is help from the frontier soldier who put her there in the first place. 

Disillusioned with the Confederacy and his role in Morning Fawn's kidnapping, Devon Reynolds returns to Texas as a Yankee spy to make amends. But can two wounded souls find solace and love amidst the chaos of war?

El Morro – Oasis for All

By Suzanne Norquist

Imagine you're traveling from Iowa to California by wagon train. The year is 1858. Although many take the Oregon Trail, your party chooses a new route to the south that passes through Santa Fe. Your family doesn’t want to face the unrest in the north.

Your wagon rambles through the high desert in the heat. Then, you see a towering rock on the horizon. When you reach it, you find shade and an oasis of cool water. Once refreshed, you notice inscriptions on the rock wall—names of those who have stopped here before. Some are dated back to the 1600s. Even older are the petroglyphs.

This happened to thirteen-year-old Sallie Fox. She added her name to the wall, as did others from her party. The rock structure now stands in El Morro National Monument in western New Mexico.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act to preserve historic monuments. Those who lived around the stone structure, known as Inscription Rock, lobbied for its preservation. El Morro was the second national monument created in the nation.

For centuries, the rock tower beckoned travelers to enjoy its shade and water. Petroglyphs indicate that Native Americans lived in the area for hundreds of years. Ruins of an ancient pueblo, which dates back to 1275, sit within the monument.

The earliest European inscription is dated April 16th, 1605. The translation from Spanish reads, "Here passed by the Governor-General Don Juan de Oñate, from discovery of the South Sea, April 16th, 1605." As the first governor of New Mexico, he was searching for "cities of gold."

Many other Spanish settlers, soldiers, and officials left their marks. Here is a particularly long one that appears to be another territorial general. It must have taken a while to carve all this in stone.

"I am the captain General of the Providences of New Mexico for the King our Lord, passed by here on the return from the pueblos of Zuni on July 29th the year 1620, and put them at peace at their humble petition, they asking favors as vassals of his Majesty and promising anew their obedience, all of which he did, with clemency, zeal, and prudence, as a most Christian-like (gentleman) extraordinary and gallant soldier of enduring and praised memory."

Others gave mainly names and dates.

"We passed by here the Sargent Major and Captain Juan de Archuleta and the Adjutant Diego Martin Barba and the Ensign Augustin de Ynojos, the year of 1636"

Here is one of the later Spanish ones.

"Here was the General Don Diego de Vargas, who conquered for our Holy Faith, and for the Royal Crown, all of New Mexico at his own expense, in the year of 1692"

After that, there wasn't much interest in the area until New Mexico became a US Territory. Then Lieutenant Edward Beale led an army expedition to survey a wagon road from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to California. This is the southern route taken by Sallie Fox.

The lieutenant brought a team with camels since they could travel through deserts for days without water. They were known as the "U.S. Army Camel Corps." They all carved their names into Inscription Rock. The Camel Corps was a short-lived experiment.

Travelers used the route until 1883 when a train track was built twenty-five miles to the north. Many left their mark, hoping to be a small piece of history.

The National Park Service took over the site upon its creation in 1916. The service built a contact station for visitors, which also served as a ranger cabin.

At this remote site, the oasis still offers cool refreshment, and the rock still displays the inscriptions. If the early settlers in 1858 had taken the Oregon Trail route, they would have missed this marvel of nature, and we would have never heard of a teenager named Sallie Fox.

***

 

" Mending Sarah's Heart" in the Thimbles and Threads Collection

Four historical romances celebrating the arts of sewing and quilting.

Mending Sarah's Heart by Suzanne Norquist

Rockledge, Colorado, 1884

Sarah seeks a quiet life as a seamstress. She doesn't need anyone, especially her dead husband's partner. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers, and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband's share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away?

Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas, "A Song for Rose" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection and "Mending Sarah's Heart" in the Thimbles and Threads Collection. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst, and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class.