Award-winning novelist highlights beauty of written word in collection of Civil War love letters

Feb. 12, 2013 - PRLog -- Award-winning historical fiction author Jessica James highlights the beauty of the written word in her book “From the Heart: Love Stories and Letters from the Civil War,” which is available at a reduced price in honor of Valentine’s Day and the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War.

Readers can warm their hearts with these letters from such well-known Civil War heroes as Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, JEB Stuart, and George Pickett, among others.

James, who ran across the letters while doing research for her award-winning Civil War novels “Shades of Gray and Noble Cause,” says she wants to bring attention to the art of letter writing before it entirely disappears.

“I still write letters, but I’m afraid it’s a form of communication that is falling to the wayside over the faster method of text messaging,” she said. “I picked the letters in the book because they are written by some of the greatest warriors this country has known. I think men and women alike will be amazed at the poignancy of the sentiments expressed.”

Gen. George Pickett wrote one of the letters included in the book at 3 p.m. on July 3, 1863, to his wife-to-be. That would be just before his famous “Pickett’s Charge,” and still in the midst of the artillery bombardment that began at 1 p.m.—the largest in North American history.

“Now, I go; but remember always that I love you with all my heart and soul, with every fiber of my being; that now and forever I am yours—yours, my beloved,” Pickett wrote.

James knows a little something about romance. Both of her Civil War novels have garnered national attention in the romantic historical fiction category and won numerous national literary awards. Her latest book, Noble Cause, is widely acclaimed as the perfect blend between romance and history, and has won the coveted John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction.

The e-book, “From the Heart: Love Stories and Letters from the Civil War,” is available through the author’s website at www.jessicajamesbooks.com. It is also available through most Internet book retailers.