Bloomingdale: The Setting for THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM

Since we’ve settled (somewhat) into our new home, I’ve finally been able to dedicate some time to writing my latest novel, FOR THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM, the second book in the series, MY BROTHER’S FLAG. I’m happy to say that at least the first five chapters of the rough draft are completed, and those are always the most challenging for me. The rest of it should come more quickly.

To celebrate this accomplishment, I wanted to share with you a little about the setting of this novel. Of course, if you haven’t read ON GROUNDS OF HONOR, stop now and read it before you go any further. I don’t want to ruin the story for you.

Book 1 was written from the perspective of Jeremiah, the older of the two Turner brothers, who enlisted with the Union Army. At its close, his younger brother Charlie, the Rebel, had been taken prisoner at the Battle of Gettysburg and was being held at Point Lookout, in Southern Maryland. And this is where Book 2 opens.

Most of the story, however, takes place on the grounds of Bloomingdale. How Charlie gets from the Prison Camp on the Western Shore to the plantation on the Eastern Shore, you’ll have to wait to read the story to find out.

Bloomingdale is located in Queenstown on Bloomingdale Road, which connects Routes 50 and 301. It was originally patented as “Mount Mill” in 1665 by Captain Robert Morris, who sold it nineteen years later to Jacob Seth. It passed down through his family until it was sold in 1820 to Edward Harris, who willed it to his daughters, Sallie and Mary. It was these women who changed its name to “Bloomingdale.” Lively and flirtatious, the sisters were considered the reigning belles of their time, but neither married. They instead retreated into the old wing of the house, a more austere and simple structure.

They in turn, left the estate to their cousin, Severn Teackle Wallis, who was a member of the General Assembly in 1861 imprisoned at Fort McHenry to prevent the vote for Maryland to secede from the Union. Refusing to take an oath of allegiance, he was held for months until being unconditionally released.

There are several buildings on the property, each representing a different part of Bloomingdale’s past. A rustic cabin, an “old wing,” and a “new wing,” allow you to visualize the development of the plantation, which eventually expanded to include over two thousand acres. The building referred to as the new wing was built in 1792, as evidenced by the engraving on the brick pictured here.

An impressive and graceful tribute to Georgian architecture, Bloomingdale was rented as a wedding location in recent years until its current owners developed health issues which prohibited its continued use. They were gracious and kind enough to allow me to use pictures of their home for the cover of my novel, and to write my story as if it were being lived out on their property.

Writing Historical Fiction gives me the liberty to add other members into the family, and to bring to life the facts and details as I imagine them. Abigail Sterret, introduced in ON GROUNDS OF HONOR, is the lead female character in FOR THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM, and is presented at the great-niece of Sallie and Mary Harris.

I used a ghost story as the inspiration for her family connection. There is an account of a supernatural visitor coming to the door in 1879, William Sterret, the nephew of the Harris Sisters who had drowned in a race at the old mill. I conjectured that in order for Sallie and Mary to have a nephew, they must have had a sister who married a gentleman with the last name of Sterret. And so I chose to connect Abigail to the family by making her William’s granddaughter. I placed her father there as the manager of the estate.

When Charlie reaches Bloomingdale, he is injured and on the run. Abigail, with her father’s permission, offers the Rebel soldier a safe place to mend his wounds and heal his spirit. The Aunts are unaware of his presence, which endangers them all.