Lisa G. Samia

BOOK THREE / A collection of poems & essays by Award Winning Author, Lisa G. Samia. Includes 28 poems and 28 essays with photos. This collection is for the men, women, and soldiers who witnessed the Civil War but their lives and experiences were lost and forgotten in the pages of history. Step back in time and listen as the voices of the silent past come back to life.LISA G. SAMIA is an award-winning Poet, Author, and Speaker. She is the recipient of two National Park Service Artist in Residence Awards. The first in September 2020 from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for Poetry. The second from Manassas, Virginia for Poetry in Fall 2021. Many of the photos in this collection were taken by Lisa during her Artist Residency.

For the unknown women who witnessed the Civil War, whose lives and experiences were lost and forgotten in the pages of history. Step back into time and hear the voices of the past come to life. The Nameless and the Faceless Women of the Civil War is a collection of 28 poems and 28 essays, along with historical images and personal photos. Second book in the series. The very first poem and essay about Elvira Finch Moore, is author's relative from upstate New York. She married John L. Moore in 1853 in Fairfax County, Virginia. Family history suggests she was a traitor, but was she a traitor to the North? The South? We do not know. We have rumors and legends passed down for generations, but no definitive answers. Elvira and the mystery that surrounds her life is the inspiration for this collection. The Nameless and the Faceless Women of the Civil War is about those unrecognized women of that era. Many are without a name or a face, but here they have a voice. As we know, not everyone who experienced the Civil War made it into the history books. Through the rhyme and narrative of poetry, the author shares their stories, as never before seen or heard. For example, the narrator in one poem is the voice of a soldier who is writing to his wife. Another features a woman who is nursing an injured soldier. A particularly moving poem gives a voice to an unnamed theatre attendee, a woman who bears witness to the events at Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865. Others are civilians who are telling their story of what it was like to be at Gettysburg listening to President Abraham Lincoln present the Gettysburg Address in November 1863 or witnessing the burning of Richmond, Virginia in April 1865. Here, we bear witness and recognize women, such as the first Black woman to enlist in the Union Army, who was only able to serve while in disguise as a man. The essays are the factual representations as provided by history, along with author insights. The poems are voices of those who are sharing their stories. While many of the poems are filled with moments of grief and despair, throughout the collection is a subliminal thread of hope. The lines of North and South are blurred in this collection the reason simply being that suffering has no boundaries.

My Name is Mrs John Singer. It is early July, 1865. The sequel to "My Name is John Singer" continues the fictional story of John Wilkes Booth who is hiding in plain sight and married to nurse Emma Dixon. While residing in Richmond, men who doubt his identity come to reveal John Singer as a fraud.A bullet meant for John strikes Emma, shot from the gun of Doctor Henry Bradley. He is desperately in love with her and doubts John Singer's identity. Believing he killed the woman he adored, Henry fires the gun at his own temple. With danger lurking, now they must escape Richmond for there are still men who wish to reveal the truth and bring John to justice."My Name is Mrs. John Singer" opens under the guise of night with John and Emma hiding at his childhood home of Tudor Hall in Bel Air, Maryland. Asia has gather the family in secret. It is time Mary Ann Booth knew her son is alive. John feels repentant of his crime, regrets his old ways, begs their forgiveness and assistance. Will the family help, or turn their backs on John?

A collection of 28 poems and 28 essays along with a selection of historical photos, sketches, and quotes that are dedicated to the lost and forgotten of the Civil War, by award winning author, Lisa G. Samia. Selections within this work earned her the award of FINALIST for the Artist in Residence Program for the National Parks Arts Foundation Gettysburg Poetry 2018. Each poem is a narrative, a story told from an imagined person who is witnessing and experiencing some event during the Civil War. Includes original sketch artwork "Bundle of Twigs" and "Unknown Confederate Soldier" drawn exclusively for this collection by artist, Shannon A. Reedy. The "Bundle of Twigs" icon is used to symbolize the hardships and suffering of the Civil War. The sketch "The Unknown Confederate Soldier" is of the headstones amassed at the Springwood Cemetery in Greenville, S.C. The inspiration of the collection comes from the very first poem and essay on Michael Dougherty of the 13th Pennsylvania Calvary. Michael was captured and imprisoned in several Confederate prisons such as Pemberton, Barrett's, Libby, Belle Island and finally served the duration of his sentence at Andersonville Prison in Andersonville, Georgia.Over the course of the 23 months and 17 days he was confined to prison, Michael kept a diary. It was only after I read the diary, especially regarding his confinement at Andersonville that the horror of this death camp came to life. Overcrowding, starvation, madness and sickness were prevalent throughout the prison. And it was Michael's daily written count of men who were dead or dying, stating them as numbers without names or faces, that the inspiration for this collection was brought forth.What of all of those thousands of soldiers, who were they? History tells us that after the Civil War many of these soldiers were eventually identified, yet what became of the ones who were not? And what about the civilians of the Civil War, those who starved to death, fell to disease or simply died of a broken heart? What became of them?Most of the poems and essays in this collection are based upon actual historical facts about a person or an event of the war. The narrator in each poem is an imagined civilian or soldier who was lost to history, yet through this creative venue is telling their story of what is was like to be at Shiloh, or be tended to by Louisa May Alcott, or watch John Wilkes Booth die on the front porch of the Garrett farm on April 26, 1865.The corresponding essays are the factual representation as provided by history, along with my thoughts and feelings. The result of the combination of the narration with rhyme of the poem and the historical reference of the essay brings forth these voices and gives those lost and forgotten souls a chance to be heard, to tell their story and live again.Lisa G. Samia is an award winner poet, author and speaker who loves American History. She was honored with the award of FINALIST for the Artist in Residence Program from the National Parks Arts Foundation Gettysburg Poetry 2018. She is the author of the historical fiction, "My Name is John Singer," an imagined account of John Wilkes Booth. Her contemporary romantic poetry collection, "The Man with the Ice Blue Eyes" debuted #1 in Women's Poetry on Amazon. She has also appeared as a guest speaker at the Poe House and Museum in Baltimore, MD and the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in English and has appeared on local television multiple times for her writing. A Boston native, she is happily married and lives in Avon, CT.www.LisaSamia.comwww.DestinyNovels.com

It was early May, 1865. History tells us on April 26, 1865 that John Wilkes Booth, the assassin for President Abraham Lincoln, was cornered and eventually shot at Richard Garrett's barn at Point Royal, Virginia ... or was he? Then as now, the rumors and speculation of his possible escape from the fiery blaze of the barn and the Union gunshot still resonate even today. This is a fictional tale of desperation, an exodus filled with repentance and the complications of hiding in plain sight using an alias as a Confederate soldier named John Singer. The story begins after Booth escapes Garrett's barn. To keep his true identity hidden, he steals a dead Confederate's uniform that has the name John Singer embroidered on the sleeve, but soon thereafter, collapses on a nearby road. An ambulance wagon finds him, and he awakens in an Alexandria, Virginia hospital where he meets nurse Emma Dixon. What follows is an imaginative story of intrigue and a twist of fate that gives him a second chance to live. He is now John Singer, hiding in plain sight. Or is he?Endorsement by respected Author and Playwright, Mr. Eric Swanson: My Name is John Singer is a fascinating novel, rich in historical detail and nuances of character, time, and place. By turns tender, thrilling, and suspenseful, it is a beguiling work of historical fiction and a thoughtful exploration of love and redemption.