About the Book
AMERICA HAS STRUGGLED for its identity since before the Revolution, even as a central theme of freedom has threaded its way through each generation's vision for our country. The Civil War illuminated our inability to define freedom because it meant different things for slave or master, North or South, and rich or poor. As always, those in power determined the path for the rest, and violence tore apart America and its families. The fog of war and the malevolence of slavery had husbands, their wives and children Trapped in the Crossfire.
As author Gladys Hodge Sherrer so eloquently narrates, the endurance of family is a strength that not only tests us during peace but keeps us together during evil times. The author diligently stitches together the true story of her family, the Williams of South Carolina and then Alabama, based on her research over several years.
This is a haunting tale that reminds us of the dangers of pompous entrenchment and dark reaction to the stresses of change, as true today as it was before our nation's greatest test. The story also shows how soldiers endured battle and hardship, even as they worried about those they left behind. It is a testament to the vigor of family and the need for pulling together, instead of pushing apart. Only then do we refuse to be Trapped in the Crossfire.
About the Author :
GLADYS HODGE SHERRER, an Alabama writer, sold her first published article at age thirteen to Grit magazine. She was educated at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Today, her passion is chronicling life in the Old South in her unique style, reminiscent of Eugenia Price. Completed after eight years of historical research in four states, Trapped in the Crossfire portrays the true life trials of Sherrer's ancestors, and personifies untold numbers of others, during the Civil War years. Sherrer, a former registered nurse and Project Director for an information technology division of a major health insurer, in 2006 became a magazine journalist, and a columnist for local newspapers, including Birmingham News and Shelby County Reporter. Her nonfiction published works include interviews with playwrights Michael Vigilant and Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, Pulitzer Prize winning poet Natasha Trethewey, and political prisoner Gracia Burnham. She began writing fiction, and achieved notoriety from groups such as, Alabama Writers Conclave, and National League of American Pen Women, where she served as chaplain. Sherrer is a member of Alabama Writers Forum, and has self-published two young adult novels. Through a collaboration of the U.S. Peace Corps and Books for Africa Project, 186 copies of her two-volume work, The Keeper Chronicles, were distributed in African school libraries. In addition to being a writer, Sherrer is a watercolorist, previously represented by a gallery in Pell City, Alabama, and known for making her works public: at art shows in Highlands, North Carolina, and in Pell City and Birmingham, Alabama. She has served as a volunteer at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Today, Sherrer has a passion for history and literary arts, actively taking both to the people by way of her latest book, Trapped in the Crossfire, her speaking engagements, Facebook pages, and a blog: JourneytoPublishing.blogspot.com.
Review :
Trapped in the Crossfire by Gladys Hodge Sherrer is a valuable book, beautifully researched, in places as detailed as a photograph. Fascinating, with carefully culled, historically accurate events, Sherrer does not overload the reader nor distract from the story with irrelevancies. The value of the book is where sheer volume of historical content overlays the stories-- laid down like colorful tiles in America's history-- a narrative not frequently heard. That much of the story follows a genuine family through well-known events makes it less an historical account, and more an enthralling drama. -- Civil War Talk Forum Host, Colonel Annie Lane, Halifax, Pennsylvania
The details in Gladys Hodge Sherrer's Trapped in the Crossfire are wonderful, the likes I've never seen except in diaries. Never have I've ever felt so close to the characters in a book, as if I lived it! The author spent several years in search of her ancestors, and captured their lives, a migration to North Alabama amidst rumors of an upcoming Civil War. This book is of value, especially for readers whose families lived in the South during these times. Sherrer gives almost a day-to-day story of how life was lived and all the hardships they endured. The book honors all families of the South. Even though the story is fictionalized, it still is based on wonderful historical accuracy. -- Danny K. Crownover, President & Executive Director, Etowah Historical Society & Etowah Heritage Museum, Gadsden, AL
Trapped in the Crossfire by Gladys Hodge Sherrer is absolutely the best narrative of life on the home front in the hill country of North Alabama that has been published in the last 10 years. It is easy to drive to the locations that are described and the series of photos taken during the war that are included add emphasis to the narrative. Ms. Sherrer avoids and sugar coats nothing: the perceptions of the population toward freedmen, slaves, Native Americans, recalcitrant Southern scoundrels and Federals alike. If there is one book, novel or documented historical research, that you have time to read regarding North Alabama, choose Trapped in the Crossfire. It will compliment any other study on your shelf, and you will wish you could meet Perry and Sara Williams and visit a spell. -- Arley McCormick, Tennessee Valley Civil War Roundtable, Huntsville, AL
Gladys Hodge Sherrer's Trapped in the Crossfire holds so much heart, with bone-real characters that traverse the landscape of the Civil War. Told in alternating voices, Sherrer paints a beautiful portrait of Sarah Hammett and Perry Williams, who meet and marry and raise a family against the backdrop of the Civil War. She paints a world crackling with detail and dialogue that lights up the pages. Suffering from tremendous losses, these characters find ways to live again without a false note or forced sentimentality. The book spans the years from 1845 to 1877 of the pre and post Civil War, never wavering in its authenticity to the narrative. Eudora Welty wrote, "Place is one of the lesser angels that watch over the racing hand of fiction," and Sherrer captures that sense of time, and place masterfully drawn with characters like Sarah and Perry, our storytellers, whom the reader will come to love and cherish because of their sheer will to not only endure, but triumph. -- Kerry Madden-Lunsford, Associate Professor and Director of Creative Writing, Department of English, University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL
