MEASURE OF DEVOTION by Nell Joslin

This review was published in the May 2025 issue of Historical Novels Review

At the onset of the American Civil War, Susannah Shelburne’s agrarian family life in South Carolina is torn apart when son Francis enlists in the Confederate army against Susannah’s wishes and those of her much-older husband Jacob. When word of Francis’s serious battle wounds arrives in late 1863, Susannah must leave ailing Jacob to tend to Francis in the Lookout Mountain/Missionary Ridge conflict zone near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Susannah’s journey to the front and her care of Francis is interspersed with flashbacks that explore her coming of age as Jacob’s child bride and challenging family dynamics at the start of the Civil War.

Scenes are set with well-researched period detail, often quite vividly. For instance, at the rail station where “[i]n the middle distance, the peaked water tower and shadowy silhouettes of wagons rose with the flat appearance of a pretend world.” Susannah’s first-person account is propelled forward by well-paced dialogue that highlights her inner strength in dealing with obstructionist military men as well as unsanitary conditions that compel her to focus on cleanliness and home remedies as she tends to her son. Her abolitionist tendencies and her son’s staunch support of the Confederacy create interesting dramatic tension. She desperately clings to her family identity and dignity as she digs deep within herself to overcome deprivations, a sometimes-ungrateful son, and to confront just how far she will go to save him.

Army atrocities and battle events are rendered unsparingly, and the story conveys the grit and desperation of wartime very effectively. A very-polished and impressive page-turning debut novel, this book will appeal to fans of Civil War fiction, especially those who enjoy learning about a lesser-known area of conflict through the story of an admirably strong female protagonist.