is a novel-in-progress about the love and courage of an Ohio boy, the girl he left behind, and the true cost of the American Civil War—when the prayers of all could not be answered. This story is inspired by the author’s great-grandfather’s letters and diaries hidden in an Ohio attic for over 100 years.

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In 1860, 16-year-old Edwin Lybarger defies Ohio’s laws to help a black friend attend all-white Springcreek Academy, unleashing the same violent passions in his hometown that divide North and South.

When the peace is lost at Fort Sumter in 1861, Edwin is only 17 and thwarted from enlisting. He volunteers to serve the Cause by working on the farm of a cousin gone with a 90-day regiment, and learns to plant corn, then weather a widow’s tears. Relieved that the war has waited for him, he joins his friends in Knox County’s Company K, 43^rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, eager to learn soldiering and stop treason. Their first battle is the exhilarating capture of a rebel fort inMissouri, but the romance of war soon washes away as friends die by accident, disease, and enemy fire. Witnessing that the men with the most desperate prayers seem always the first to die, Edwin stops praying.

Badly wounded at Corinth, he is mistakenly listed as killed in the battle, a shock that breaks his father’s frail health. Edwin gains the courage to walk again by losing his heart to Sophronia Adams, who becomes his most loyal correspondent from home. Her faith and constancy help him return to his regiment to “make the country what it should be.” She bolsters her courage by helping the Ladies’ Loyal League aid Ohio soldiers and their families, helping Edwin’s mother tend his ailing father, bravely mourning each hometown boy lost, and keeping Edwin ever in her prayers.

Blessedly, the war tide turns in 1863 when Vicksburg falls to Grant, Lee is defeated at Gettysburg, and Confederate raider John Morgan is caught in Ohio and jailed for a horse thief. Edwin and Sophronia re-unite during his brief home furlough, but their joy is humbled by his father’s death. His intentions are further thwarted by her father’s appeal to his honor to make his proposal when—if—he returns at war’s end.

Putting his faith in Gen. Sherman, Edwin barely escapes capture at the siege of Atlanta in 1864. Promoted to regimental quartermaster, he becomes one of Sherman’s “bummers” on the Big March through the heart of slavery. Marching ever north as the enemy desperately flees the Union advance, he dares to dream of war’s end, when all are free, when the enemy surrenders, when God is finally willing of mercy. But will Sophronia still love the man the war has made him?

“The prayers of all could not be answered,” President Lincoln told an embittered nation near war’s end. Inspired by the author’s great-grandfather’s journals and letters, The Color of Prayer is a vivid, poignant tale of the war that forged an America worthy of all.

Read excerpts from The Color of Prayer