The Carroll Farm Fight — Greg Hunt

Living at a frontier crossroads can have unexpected perils, especially when war is afoot. Mel Carroll, an isolated, self-sufficient hill farmer, wants only to plow and harvest, tend to his stock, marry his sweetheart, and live a quiet life in the rugged Ozark country of southwest Missouri. But within a day of the arrival of a northbound Confederate army, his farm is hurriedly transformed into a fortified military camp, and the army that has seized his home and land waits tensely for their enemy to arrive.

After the Union forces arrive, Mel witnesses three days of desperate fighting, as well as the steady desolation of his farm, fields and livestock. The outmanned, outgunned Confederate forces finally collapse in disarray, and Mel is captured along with the bloody, defeated remnants of the Southern forces. Later, he barely escapes to the surrounding woods, and from then on has only one goal in mind: to make his way overland through the rugged Ozark Mountains to the farm where his sweetheart, Rochelle Adderly, and her family live. Mel finds that the Adderlys have suffered even worse tribulations, and though the two armies have taken their battles on south, the danger is not over yet. Now Mel Carroll must fight a one-man war to save the woman he loves.