Book excerpt: “The home front experience of the South in the final years of the American Civil War takes center stage . . . A very enjoyable, involving read.”—Historical Novel Society On a foggy spring morning in 1862, Sarah Browning watches a train leave Lake City, Florida, heading northeast and full of Confederate soldiers. On board is her husband, Alex, crowded into a boxcar with fellow recruits and imagining the terrors awaiting him in Manassas, Gettysburg, Olustee, and the Wilderness. With Alex on the battlefield, Sarah uses her wit and Christian faith to sustain her family through innumerable hardships, made all the more threat­ening without comfort from her husband. Alone to face these challenges, Sarah makes the most dramatic decision of her life . . . Based on a true family story, Alligator Creek presents strong characters who survived the hardship of the American Civil War through love, sacrifice, and endurance. “Guttry’s fast-paced historical novel Alligator Creek is based on the story of her great-great-grandmother during and after the Civil War . . . a real page-turner.”—The Eagle “'Lottie Guttry’s account of her ancestors’ lives during and after the Civil War is a spellbinding narrative that is written with such care and attention to details of the era that the readers will feel as though they are paging through a diary from that time period.”—Pat McAlhany, Lake City-Columbia County Historical Museum, Inc. “This compelling novel is the product of impressive research.”—Sean McMahon, PhD, Professor of History, Florida Gateway College