![]() Rosetta is partially motivated by her love for Jeremiah - who only joined the 97th New York State Volunteers to earn money so he and Rosetta could buy a farm in Nebraska - and partially by her desire to escape life in Flat Creek, New York, where she is tormented by her mother-in-law and a hostile neighbor. Rosetta Wakefield, the determined and courageous heroine of I Shall Be Near to You, follows her new husband, Jeremiah, into battle. Sarah Ballou, like almost every wife of a soldier, waited at home for her husband. But keep in mind that war stories rarely have fairy-tale endings.) (Don’t worry, I’m not going to ruin the story. Erin Lindsay McCabe’s beautiful novel of undying love during the Civil War, I Shall Be Near to You, made my eyes water as well. ![]() I first heard Ballou’s letter on the Ken Burns PBS documentary series The Civil War, and it brought me to tears. Ballou died in July 1861 of wounds sustained in the first Battle of Bull Run. Letter from Major Sullivan Ballou (2nd Rhode Island Infantry Regiment) to his wife, Sarah. But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you in the brightest day and in the darkest night-amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours-always, always and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. ![]()
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