Red Moon at Sharpsburg

Red Moon at Sharpsburg (2008), a novel by Rosemary Wells, is told from the point of view of twelve-year-old India Moody, who lives in a small town in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War. Wells's heavily researched novel, which includes a wealth of historically accurate detail, is unique in offering a young woman's perspective on an episode of American history that is most often discussed impersonally or from the point of view of adult men. Wells does not balk at addressing major issues of the day; she is concerned with the way Southerners thought about and justified slavery, as well as the way Americans on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line thought about and justified the restricted role of women in public life.

India's father, Cyrus Moody, the town harness maker, discovers that Calvin Trimble has been thrown from his horse and badly injured. Cyrus transports Calvin to his home, Longmarsh Hall, where his wife, Geneva, and their three sons, Emory, Rupert, and Tom, are waiting. The Trimbles' head servant, a slave named Micah Cooley, runs off to notify Dr. Junius Hooks that Calvin needs medical attention. Dr. Hooks diagnoses Calvin with a fractured skull, forecasting the worst. Geneva worries how she will raise three boys without a father. With all hope appearing lost, Micah's wife, Ester, prays for Calvin's recovery; to everyone's surprise, he recovers.

After Calvin's miracle, Geneva swears to Cyrus that, in gratitude for his role in saving Calvin's life, she will protect his household and children for “all the days” her family “has left on earth.” For their part in the recovery, Geneva grants Micah and Ester not only their freedom but also ten acres of prime peach orchard.



The novel then moves twelve years into the future. The Civil War is in swing, and India is at a party celebrating the recent Confederate victory at Manassas. She is waiting for the arrival of her best friend Julia Pardoe, whose parents are India's godparents. The Pardoes arrive, and Mr. Pardoe predicts that the war will be long and excruciating, declaring that the North “will draft as many young men as they need into a war machine,” and “slaughter” the South. The Pardoes are Quakers and, therefore, pacifists. To escape the war and prevent their son enlisting in it, they have decided to move to Ohio, where they will send their son to Oberlin College. Julia asks India to come with them, but India refuses to leave her family.

India describes how the war has affected life in the Shenandoah Valley. Her father has enlisted on the Confederate side, although he knows he could never actually kill another man. In his absence, he has arranged for Emory Trimble, the son of the man whose life he had saved years earlier, to tutor India. Emory, who has become a scholar, is meant to tutor India in subjects appropriate for girls, such as scripture and penmanship; but after spying the delicate scientific instruments in one of Emory's rooms, India convinces him to teach her chemistry and biology, despite his initial protests. Impressed by her abilities, Emory encourages India to work towards her goal of applying to Oberlin, which she has heard about in her correspondence with Julia.

In August 1862, India's father returns from the war, suffering from dysentery. However, before he has fully recovered, he is called back to service. Not long after he leaves, India receives a box of salicin pills in the mail from Emory, who has taken up a post in the army as a medic. Resolving to bring the medicine to her Pa, she heads off after him. This leads her into Western Virginia, and eventually, Sharpsburg, where one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War is being fought. India is astounded by the noise and the horror of war; after the battle ends, she notes a sinister, red crescent moon rise over the battlefield. She slips onto the battlefield to search for her Pa but doesn't find him.



India returns to the Shenandoah Valley with the Confederate army. The day after the battle of Sharpsburg, she learns that her Pa has passed away from pneumonia. His death affects her deeply, and Geneva Trimble, true to her earlier promise, takes India in while she grieves. Geneva and her son Calvin help her through the loss.

As the war drags on, Longmarsh Hall is eventually commissioned as a hospital, and Emory comes to serve there. He asks India to transcribe his notes, and they become close. However, as word reaches the Shenandoah Valley that Ulysses S. Grant will be appointed General of the Union army and that he is planning to burn the valley, India's relatives arrive to take her away from the coming carnage. India's uncle and aunt relocate her to Kettletown, but she despises life there, and against all advice, returns to the valley.

When India reaches the valley, her worst fears are confirmed: the valley has been burnt and ransacked. Geneva and Calvin are alive and have taken in a wounded soldier, but Emory has not been heard from for weeks. A former neighbor-turned-Union-army-Captain, David Strother, arrives, demanding the Trimbles turn over the Confederate soldier. When they resist, he burns their home in a rage, taking them prisoner. India, however, manages to escape.



After the danger clears, India returns to Longmarsh Hall, this time with Ester and Micah in tow. They discover that Captain Strother's Lieutenant, Henry Bedell, was wounded in the skirmish and had been left to die. India rides to Harper's Ferry to secure the medicine he needs to live. When the knowledge of India's deed reaches Dr. Hook, he threatens Micah and Ester to get them to turn over Henry. However, India, Micah, and Ester manage to transport Henry back to his Union cohort at Harper's Ferry. There, India meets up again with Captain Strother, who tells India that he knows where Emory is and promises to help her find him. Later, on their way to Maryland, he admits that he regrets burning down the Trimbles' home.

As the novel closes, India and Emory are reunited, and he urges her to realize her longstanding dream of attending Oberlin. He pledges to wait for her; and on that open-ended note, the story ends.

Wells uses India's unique position to explore various views of the war. For instance, India's familiarity with the Trimbles gives her access to Geneva's deepest thoughts on slavery; at one point, Geneva confesses of Southerners, “No matter how slavery is justified, we know in our hearts it is wrong.” On the other hand, Captain David Strother, although an ardent opponent of slavery, is portrayed as a conflicted and dangerous man. This embrace of moral complexity allows Wells to bring considerable nuance to her portrayal of the actors in a chapter of American history that is often reduced to simplistic good vs. evil terms – but without sugarcoating the heinousness of the institution they were fighting over.