SEARCHING FOR GENERAL LEE

About the Book

In this fast-paced and engaging novel for young adults, Barrett Dowell captures the drama of the pivotal Second Battle of Manassas from the point of view of a Virginia youth who travels from his home outside Warrenton with an important message for General Robert E. Lee. Chadwick Curtis is not a soldier, and he has yet to make up his mind on what it means for a state to secede from the Union. Like many members of plantation families, he values his way of life and resists the Union’s impulse to change it. But he also grapples with moral questions: Slavery, his father said on his deathbed, is wrong; freeing the family slaves is the moral thing to do. War, Chadwick comes to believe, is also wrong, for the costs are to grave and the spoils to hard won. In the week it takes him to ride north in search of the famed general, Chadwick is witness to the brutality of war, to the courage of those who fight it, and the growth of his own character and that of his companion, his eleven -year- old brother Brett. Carole Sargent

About the Author

For Barrett Dowell, the discovery of a handful of Civil War Bullets in the backyard of her antebellum home in Warrenton, Virginia, sparked an interest in local history that led her to research and write Searching For General Lee. Dowell’s residence, in Old Town Warrenton regularly sheltered casualties from both Armies throughout the war. Occupied more than fifty times by either Union or Confederate troops, the town still maintains its historic character today and is a tourist destination among Civil War enthusiasts. Dowell’s commitment to education is another reason she chose to write this novel for young adults. A former Fauquier County librarian, she pioneered one of the Warrenton area’s first after-school programs, serving as its director for 20 years. Her personal experiences include Community services: Dowell is currently with the Fauquier County Head Start program, The Virginia Preschool Initiative, and The Steering Committee for Early Childhood Educators’ Professional Development. As an Alexandria, Virginia, native she pursued a medical technology degree attending Stratford College and interning at George Washington University.