Measure of Mercy

May 1865 With the death of the Riverbend Plantations owner, the slaves gone to make their homes in other parts of the country, and the only heir in Europe, only one older coupled remained on the property with their daughter. They refused to leave the only home they had ever known to raise the remaining Hatcher orphans. Samantha, oldest of the orphans sitting in the dark in an upstairs window-seat focuses on a horse with a body slumped across the neck. Running downstairs to the veranda she finds herself facing a badly wounded Yankee soldier. Her hatred begins to war with her Christian faith, but the deep convictions of her biblical beliefs win the battle and she hides the injured soldier tending his wounds without ever telling anyone. News of Yankee soldiers raiding Hartwell, Georgia, and news of other soldiers searching nearby for their missing colonel, frightens Sam. When she is certain the family is asleep, she moves the soldier patient to the solider camp. Thinking she is rid of the northern intruder, Sam tries to put the wounded man out of her thoughts, and dreams. Weeks later, two men appear at the door. Sam recognizes that one is not a stranger. He made it clear that he is searching for his Angel-of-Mercy. Evil criminal deeds of the returning heir, the rescue by the cussed Yankee, and family secrets revealed Sam’s gauging of blue and grey changed slightly. Will the cussed Yankee find his angel? How will Sam handle her emotions, thought, and dreams as times change?

From one generation to the next, older family members have passed details of their history and information about their homes, land, and family circumstances down to guarantee they remain intact as factual. Author, Margaret Hatcher House, is the recipient of historical details that her grandparents and great-grandparents passed down to insure future generations would know their roots. Mrs. House has carefully woven those historical facts together with some fictitious literary liberties crafting an engaging work that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. A Measure of Mercy paints images of grandeur of the old South with its huge plantations, elegant gatherings that made obvious class distinctions, and of awesomely vast cultivated fields of cotton and grains drawing nourishment from nearby rivers. The Hatcher history of Riverbend Plantation includes the freedom of slaves by President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and its impact on families, both black and white. Freed men and women left the palatial plantation homes and fields without necessary care returning them to dilapidated remnants of once postcard beauty, and overgrown acres of dreadful ruin and decay. Morsels of Hart County, Georgia’s history, the Hatcher family, and events made available to us through the intentional “passing history down” by word-of-mouth, coupled with the imagination of Author Margaret Hatcher House, await readers between the covers of A Measure of Mercy!