Loyalties: Book II

Set against the backdrop of three major American Civil War battles at Antietam, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg, the same five narrators return to tell the stories of what happened in their communities of conscience. Members of Mennonite, Amish, and German Baptist churches choose their loyalties, when their traditional belief of not participating in warfare collides with the demands of Union and Confederate forces. As state and national military drafts and exemptions sweep through the North and South, women and children find themselves raising crops in the Shenandoah Valley, while the “menfolk” join up or flee.

Fretz Funk, a young man in Chicago, lives with uncertainty also, immersed in his new lumber business, disenchanted with the glorification of war on both sides, and disappointed by President Lincoln’s slowness in establishing equality for dark-skinned people. A bishop in Iowa fears the growing fissures in the Amish church and sorts through his own failures. A family in western Virginia faces the repeated absence of Poppa, when he is forced to work as a teamster.

The war pushes relentlessly from the summer of 1862 through January of 1864, creating a cumulative pressure of upheaval, dissension, resistance, and teetering faith among civilians.

Here’s How Fretz Begins Chapter 1

I’m no fool. A fork in the road requires a choice. A tug on a chicken wishbone means someone gets the bigger part. Two weights on a scale rarely balance.

Some of my best friends are volunteering. Phil! He signed up at the same time President Lincoln made this a total war on soldiers and citizens, calling for 300,000 more men. Six months ago, when Phil and I visited Camp Douglas on that cold sunny day, I thought I knew where he stood; I took his silence to mean the same as mine. Instead, we’ve moved in opposite directions. When we went to see the circus and menagerie in May (what humbug!) he was already near to signing up. I’d been oblivious!

Loyalties Audiobook Sample:
Fretz, read by Buzz Kemper

Loyalties Audiobook Sample:
Jacob, read by Mark Wagler

Praise for Book II: Loyalties

“Evie Yoder Miller’s Loyalties is a timely call for ethical responses to a world steeped in violence and leaders who encourage that violence. The novel brings history to life in a compelling way because of its vividly drawn characters. I could not put it down.” –Daniel Shank Cruz, author of Queering Mennonite Literature: Archives, Activism, and the Search for Community

“I wish I had read Loyalties in my college and seminary Mennonite-Anabaptist history classes. Evie Miller illustrates well the reality of the struggles to be loyal to values of peacemaking while facing the shifting demands of the Civil War. Tensions build between North and South: of race, of loving those we disagree with, of keeping family and property safe, of being true to understanding what God asks of followers. The historical foundations and life stories in Loyalties challenge readers to assess similar complexities in life and faith today.” -Firman Gingerich, retired Mennonite pastor