It's 1864, at Johnson's Island Prison for Confederate Soldiers, in Lake Erie, Ohio.Cacharel Kelley—a Yankee miss from a nearby Lake Erie Island—comes to the prison to confront Trey Brandis, the rebel captain, who during an escape attempt, killed the soldier her wealthy family had arranged for her to marry.Instead, she finds herself his captive, forced to flee with him through the lake islands as he evades the pursuing soldiers. Despite being on different sides of the war, Cacharel is drawn to the charismatic rebel.But when she encounters his compatriots and realizes they are planning something that could change the course of the war, Cacharel vows to stop them even if it means Trey Brandis will die…CAPTIVE HEART is a Civil War story based on true events. Johnson's Island Prison for Confederate soldiers in Lake Erie was a real place. Its average number of prisoners was 2,500, but over the course of the Civil War, 10,000 Confederate soldiers, mostly officers, were imprisoned there.In September 1864, there were plans involving the island prison that could have changed the outcome of the Civil War. My novel is a fictional account of what happened.I have been to Johnson's Island. The prison itself is long gone, but 206 Confederate graves still mark the prison's cemetery.
