Love and Valor : Intimate Civil War Letters Between Captain Jacob and Emeline Ritner

A tremendously moving and literate story of the Civil War based on letters, regimental histories, newspaper stories, and additional writing. Jacob Ritner answered Lincolns first call for 75,000 men in April 1861. After serving a three month term with the 1st Iowa Infantry, Jacob acted as a recruiting officer for the Union Army, and then re-enlisted in the 25th Iowa Infantry. He participated in most of the major campaigns of the Western Theater, including Wilsons Creek, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the Atlanta Campaign, Shermans March to the Sea, the occupation of Savannah, the Carolinas campaigns, and the Grand Review in Washington, DC.

He was in the first brigade that entered Columbia, South Carolina, that led to the removal of the Confederate flag and the raising of the US flag over the state capitol building.

Emeline remained in Iowa, raising four small children and managing the family farm. Her letters provide a description and stories of a small town in Iowa during the Civil war, of the women who stayed behind and dealt with the tragedies of losing husbands, brothers and fathers to the war.