As a transplanted northern boy, I never understood the motives for such commitment to sacrifi ce from the men and women of the South. I have now been granted a look into the depth of family, faith and community that drove this war for independence. Isaacs House is more than just a good novel. It is a heartfelt love story within a love story of the Old South. Jane Bennett Gaddy is a true daughter of Mississippi, and she speaks from depths of devotion to her heritage with compassion in every line. She conveys the youthful call to war and post-war burden of the warriors, as well as the emotions of those on the home front, and her readers will experience carpetbaggers, scalawags, copperheads, Radical Republicans and a nation even more divided after the war.