Doris Dumrauf

Shiloh Valley Doris Dumrauf

***Finalist Regional Fiction 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards

A sweeping saga of love and loss, self-discovery and sacrifice set during the U. S. Civil War era




1849: Revolution is sweeping across Rhenish-Bavaria, changing the lives of three young people from different social classes forever. Desperate for freedom and adventure, and trapped in a profession he hates, nineteen-year-old Martin Dupree eagerly joins the rebels. When his own father causes the revolution to flounder, Martin turns to America for deliverance. Katrin Weber, adored by Martin but betrothed to a man she does not love, boldly leaves home to strike out on her own until a tragedy suddenly ends her hard-won independence. Drafted into the rebel army, Katrin's brother Nikolaus wants nothing more than to return to the comfort of his small family farm. But life has other plans, forcing him and Katrin to likewise seek their destiny in America. It isn't all milk and honey, as the America of the 1850s is breaking apart over the question of slavery, forcing the young immigrants to make difficult choices. From the vineyards of the Rhine Valley to the banks of the Mississippi, from rebel skirmishes to the battlefields of the Civil War, Shiloh Valley follows their quest for freedom and struggle for survival.