Fire and Forgiveness: A Nun’s Truce with General Sherman published February 19, 2019 by the University of South Carolina Press.
Exciting True Civil War Story with Lessons on Forgiveness and Peacemaking
Making peace with her spiteful classmate Clara seems impossible to Jane. Despite encouragement from Mother Baptista, the mother superior at their convent school, Jane and Clara dig in their heels. As the girls brood they hear cannons explode outside their school as General Sherman and the Union Army close in on the city of Columbia, South Carolina, in February 1865.
When the Union Army enters the surrendered city, Mother Baptista asks General Sherman for protection for her nuns and students. He promises they will be safe inside their convent school. Instead, they have to flee in the night through a chaotic, burning city and spend a terrifying night in a graveyard.
Homeless and stranded with 200 lives in her care, Mother Baptista confronts Sherman at dawn. Will she forgive him for breaking his promise? Can Jane and Clara make peace when the adults in their world are at odds and at war?
Based on First-Person Accounts of True Events
Set during the most deadly and divisive war in U.S. history, this compelling story is based on first-person accounts of true events. Fire and Forgiveness: A Nun’s Truce with General Sherman is a reminder of the important role forgiveness and peacemaking play in life’s conflicts big and small, whether between quarreling children, proud adults, or warring nations.
