A Letter (FINALLY!) from Abigail Jane Applegate

Dear Readers,

I am scared for my father's safety. It has been many months since I have heard from him. People who go through the town often talk about how the war is bloody and horrible. I managed to talk to a drummer boy just the other day. He told me what he had seen. He looked down, his eyes full of tears.
    "Miss," he whispered, "you should praise the Lord your God if your father comes back alive in one piece." Then he ran off after his company.
I am horrified. Come back in one piece? Of course my father must come back in one piece. He is my father. He should live many more long years after this. But shall he?

My mother, for our safety, has decided that we must spend the winter in our grandmother's plantation down in the Carolinas.

There is my sketch of her plantation. I believe that it is a beautiful place, but my heart is full of fear. I talked to another boy who had run away with the army. He told me of plantations that have been overrun by soldiers, from both sides, and sometimes the occupants are killed. Though my father is a Patriot, my grandmother is a Loyalist, so perhaps we shall at least be spared by the English. I do now know if the Patriots have robbed any of the plantations, but I shudder to think of seeing my own father raiding a place that was home to one of his own fellow Americans.

I shall keep you updated.