Charissa of the Overland — Phyllis de La Garza

Set against the action of QuantrillÕs Raiders, Westward Expansion, Indians, and unrest over the Civil War, this novel tells the amazing, story of Charissa Pankhurst, A.K.A. Charley Pankhurst in the 1860s. CharissaÕs parents died of typhoid. Southern zealots forced her much older husband and her to hide out and live in caves in the Ozarks. Her husband was mercifully shot when he contracted rabies, and the young wounded Union soldier Charissa met while living in the caves was hunted down and hanged by QuantrillÕs Raiders. Feeling it her duty to tell the young manÕs parents, she risked her life to get to their farm. This was CharissaÕs journey of change. At the farm, needing to take control of her life, she vowed to kill Quantrill. There, sixteen-year-old Charissa clipped her hair to morph into Charlie, a young man. Intending to follow through on her vow, Charlie joins the raiders, and meets QuantrillÕs young wife, Kate, and Doctor Benson. Kate immediately knows Charley's secret, but keeps it because she wants a female friend to talk to. Doc Benson knows too, but his business is doctoring and getting to Texas. Charley helps the good doctor, breaks horses for Quantrill and learns to drive a buck-board. Eventually Kate tells her husband about Charley, and he too keeps the secret from his men. Charley cannot kill Quantrill and leaves the Raiders instead.Ê She begins to work with a 16-mule team operation, does a stint as a horse jockey, becomes a jerk-line freighter, and eventually drives the big, Concord stagecoaches across the West. Charley's relationships with men and women exhibit humor as she perfects her walk, tobacco chewing and spitting expertise.