Rachel's Letters

Rachel Dudley and Jonathan Billows were in love and about to be married when the Civil War broke out in 1861. Jonathan, who owned a successful business in Chicago, joined the Union Army and was blinded and lost a leg when Confederate artillery attacked his position. Because there was no room for him in the military hospital, he was medically quartered in the home of a middle-aged widow who had lost her husband in the war.The story grows when the widow begins reading Rachel's letters to Jonathan and writing his replies for him. The drama then expands when a runaway slave seeks asylum at the widow's farm at almost the same time a Union soldier asks for protection from the army for an alleged act of cowardice.A situation involving wilderness survival that includes an encounter with a huge bear leads to a surprise ending to the story.