Her Enemies, Blue & Gray

Lettie is surrounded by enemies. She has just buried her brothers from opposite sides in the Battle of Lexington, Missouri, in September 1861. The Union sergeant believes all Missourians are enemies and especially Lettie, since Wolfe, her fiance', rides with a bushwhacker gang working for the Confederacy. Her neighbors with southern sympathies hate her because she freed her slaves and shares with them her hemp and tobacco harvests. As if all that isn't trouble enough, the head of the bushwhacker gang plans to kidnap her workers and sell them back into slavery. Lettie, Wolfe, and the freed slaves strive to save the family farm and survive the many enemies.

Ellen Gray Massey Ellen Gray Massey (1922 - 2014) published numerous articles, short stories, essays, and books in her 92 years. After retiring from teaching in Lebanon, Missouri, she had given 428 talks---120 of them to the Missouri Humanities Council. In 1995 she was inducted into the Writers Hall of Fame of America and her writing has received numerous other awards. From 1973 to 1983 she directed high school students who published Bittersweet, the Ozark Quarterly.