Overstreet Saga

Seeking a new life, the Oberstrasse family lands on the wild Maine coast in 1753. They find that the American frontier teems with conniving swindlers, hostile French and Indians, killing diseases, and then a powerful movement for independence from Britain. They have come because Christianne has decided that their infant sons will never soldier for the Landgraf of Hesse like their father, hired out to serve King George of England. Expecting to till the soil, Johann finds that opportunity on the rocky coast comes from the forest, not land, so he learns carpentry and trapping. But war follows them. The French and their Indian allies mount attacks on the English settlements of New England. To protect their growing family and Broad Bay neighbors, Johann accepts the captaincy of the settlement's militia and leads the company through the British assault on the citadel of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. Left behind in Broad Bay, Christianne, their small children, and the old and young stave off Indian attacks, hunger, and cruel privations. Peace brings Johann success as a carpenter, but also searing personal losses. When the fever for American independence reaches Broad Bay in 1774, Johann is torn, then resolves to kill no more... unlike his son, Franklin, who leaves to stand with the Americans on Bunker Hill.

The Burning Land, book two of the Overstreet Saga, brings the listener back to the Civil War and its aftermath, when Americans fought each other over what the nation would become-a time of adventure, excitement, opportunity, and agonizing loss. From bestselling historian and storyteller David O. Stewart, “The Burning Land” follows a turbulent romance through the upheavals of the Civil War and America's westward migration. Henry Overstreet, a carpenter, aims to scale the social ladder in Waldoboro, Maine, in his pursuit of Katie Nash. The lovers' path runs through America's bloodiest war, one fought to redeem the nation's soul by freeing a people. Often separated, they use quiet and devoted letters to capture each other's heart as Katie wins teaching jobs usually reserved for men and Henry fights furious battles with Maine's legendary Twentieth Regiment, rising to sergeant. On Henry's first leave, they marry on the Fourth of July, 1864, but their trials only multiply. Katie nurses Henry back from a grisly battlefield wound, but he recoils from the prospect of returning small-town Waldoboro. Dreaming of new horizons, Henry uproots their young family for booming Chicago, but little goes right in that overnight metropolis, testing their love and faith as never before.