Awards

• Commended for Independent Publisher Book Awards (South-East Nonfiction) 2010

Overview

"When a brigade of General Sherman's victorious army marched into Chapel Hill the day after Easter 1865, the Civil War had just ended and President Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated. Citizens of the picturesque North Carolina college town had endured years of hardship and sacrifice, and now the Union army was patrolling its streets. One of Sherman's young generals paid a visit to the stately home of David Swain, president of the University of North Carolina and a former governor of the state, to inform him that the town was now under Union occupation. Against this unlikely backdrop began a passionate and controversial love story still vivid in town lore. When President Swain's daughter Ella met the Union general, life for these two young people who had spent the war on opposite sides was forever altered. General Smith Atkins of Illinois abhorred slavery and greatly admired Abraham Lincoln. Spirited young Ella Swain had been raised in a slave-owning family and had spent the war years gathering supplies to send to Confederate soldiers. But, as a close friend of the Swain's wrote, when Atkins met Ella, the two ""changed eyes at first sight and a wooing followed."" The reaction of the Swains and fellow North Carolinians to this North-South love affair was swift and often unforgiving. In Undaunted Heart: The True Story of a Southern Belle and a Yankee General, author Suzy Barile, a great-great-granddaughter of Ella Swain and Smith Atkins, tells their story, separating facts from the elaborate embellishments the famous courtship and marriage have taken on over the generations. Interwoven throughout Undaunted Heart are excerpts from Ella's never-before-published letters to her parents that reveal a loving marriage that transcended differences and scandal. Undaunted Heart: The True Story of a Southern Belle & a Yankee General has received a Silver IPPY Award for Best Regional Non-Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards."

Full Product Details

9780982077115

Table of Contents

Reviews

.. .a family history ...and an interesting look at Reconstruction through the eyes of some prominent North Carolinians. The author, Suzy Barile, is a decendent of the couple... and that gives the book a personal touch. But the book is not sentimental; it is well-researched and draws its material from the letters, diaries and documents of its central characters. Undaunted Heart is for your Civil War buff or for anyone interested in local history. --News & Record, Greensboro, NC This is a love story describing the marriage of a Union General (Smith Dykins Atkins) to a Southern Belle, Ella Swain in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. The couple met during the final stages of the war as Atkins brigade under Judson Kilpatrick occupied Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Swain, the 22 year old daughter of Dr. David Swain, a three time governor of North Carolina and President of the University of North Carolina met Atkins as a result of her father s prominent role in surrendering the state to General Sherman. Following a whirlwind romance the couple became engaged within two months and married two months after that. The relationship was widely disapproved of and caused a great deal of controversy within the defeated southern community. The book follows the married life of Swain and Atkins and ends with their deaths. In the text we are treated to snippets of the couple s life through letters and written commentaries of contemporaries. We experience the joys of birth and the despair of death within their families. We learn that a good portion of their married life is spent between Freeport, Illinois where he is the postmaster appointed by Abraham Lincoln and a succession of republican presidents and North Carolina. The book provides limited insight into reconstruction and the affairs of the University of North Carolina. Author, Suzy Barile, is a direct descendent of the Swain family and the publication of this story had been an unrealized family goal prior to the completion of this 167 page double spaced book. Endnotes, an index and bibliography provide some contextual material to help evaluate the book. Barile is an award winning writer who has contributed to several historical compendiums. The letters are in her personal possession and the project took approximately 15 years to culminate in this book. --Len Riedel, Blue & Gray

Author Information

After a 25-year career as a newspaper reporter and editor, Suzy Barile taught English and journalism at Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina, until she retired recently. She is a graduate of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and earned a master's degree from North Carolina State University. She lives in Harmony, North Carolina, where she is working on her next book.

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