Dixie Run (ePub)

Twelve year-old Caroline Fitzpatrick is attending boarding school at St. Marye's Girls Academy in Sharpsburg, Maryland. Her horse Dixie is with her and so is her best friend Elizabeth Harrison whose pony is named Magpie. It is September 1862 and the war between the North and the South is now too close for comfort. Robert E. Lee and his Confederates have invaded Maryland. In response, the Union has assembled a massive army determined to stop them. Overnight, the state has become a hotbed of violence and turmoil. With a battle raging only six miles away from the idyllic farming hamlet of Sharpsburg, both armies desperate for supplies, will soon raid the town for food and fresh mounts.

While taking an afternoon horseback ride with a local farm boy, Tiberius Rhodes and his hound dog Rufus, Caroline and Elizabeth encounter a soldier intent on conscripting horses for the Union army. Fearing that Dixie and Magpie will be taken, the two girls resolve to return to their homes miles away on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. However, before they can leave, the opposing forces invade Sharpsburg. Unwilling to abandon their beloved horses, Caroline, Elizabeth and Tiberius band together with their friend Rebecca Blackwell and a loyal slave named Peter. Determined to escape the clash of armies, their decision instead will catapult them straight into the epicenter of the bloody battle of Antietam Creek. They find themselves stranded in an ordeal that will test their courage, self-reliance and friendship. DIXIE RUN is a childhood odyssey of innocence versus reality. It is an adventure tale of survival with a message that love and devotion is without prejudice and the bond that exists between people and their pets is stronger than the force of war.