Abigail Larke and Her Patriot Family

Abigail Larke and her Patriot family could never have imagined the sort of destruction Tory raiders and Hessian soldiers could bring to New Jersey. When the port of Elizabeth Town was raided and its revered Academy and popular Patriot church burned, Pastor James Caldwell is forced to remove his family farther inland to the village of Connecticut Farms. Abigail joins the pastor's household as an assistant nurse to his nine children. Shortly after, Abigail's father is beset by Tory highwaymen. The pastor's wife is shot dead by a brace of enemy musket balls, and the manse in Connecticut Farms is burned to the ground.

Abigail rejoins her family now removed to their uncle's farm near Springfield, New Jersey. Redcoats and Hessians invade Springfield in an attempt to cross the Wachtung Mountains and capture General Washington at Morristown. A bloody battle ensues.

Through it all, two Continental soldiers have become especially important to the Larke family. One helps Pastor James Caldwell, the Fighting Parson, to collect shoes, blankets, and food for the famished, freezing Continentals encamped at Morristown. The other is captured, taken to the vile prison ship in New York harbor, and hanged.

Who could have fathomed how this enemy behaved? The perils of war made no room for the Sixth Commandment: Thou shalt do no murder.