That Damned War, by John Gregery Medel

In 1867 San Francisco, eighteen-year-old Sarah Ann Hillin begins writing down the Texas childhood the Civil War destroyed. She remembers a close-knit family, a beloved brother’s hopeful courtship, and a farm once governed by faith, hard work, and the quiet certainty that life would continue as it always had.

But war reaches even those who want no part in it. As the men are called away and the women struggle to keep the farm alive, Sarah’s world is reshaped by hunger, bereavement, and her mother’s determination to secure a future at any cost.

Told with warmth and clear-eyed honesty, That Damned War: Sarah Ann Hillin’s Texas Memories is a moving story of family, loss, and resilience—and of the courage required to leave one life behind and begin another.