Excerpt from Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Abbott Kahler, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Are you one of those damned rebels?" he asked.

The word "rebel" was not yet one Southerners used with pride. They lived in sovereign states, and in their view this war was not about "rebellion" but about defending their homeland against coercive foreigners. Coming from a Yankee, the word was a mockery Belle would not abide.

She drilled her fists into her hips and said, "I am a secessionist."

He demanded to know if there were any rebel flags on the premises. Belle didn't respond. Another soldier pointed out that the town was Federal property now, and they would hoist a Union flag up over the house.

At this, Belle's mother stepped forward.

"Men," she said, "every member of my household will die before that flag shall be raised over us."

The circle of men contracted, fencing her in. Eliza peeked through a latticework of fingers. Belle noticed the Dutchman at the head of the pack. His arm coiled around her mother's body and yanked her close. He aimed his slack mouth at hers. Belle considered her mother a "very handsome woman," and she knew the Yankees would stop at nothing. There were reports throughout the South of "Yankee outrages," as the papers called them, soldiers invading homes and destroying property and assaulting women. In Maryland, a border state with a large secessionist population, one woman claimed a Union soldier thrust his hands against her bosom, under the pretense of looking for concealed arms. Another Yankee, in broad daylight and on a public street, pinned a girl's arms behind her back and asked, "Is it true that you're the prettiest girl in Baltimore?" In one farmer's home they found a Confederate uniform coat and, in retaliation, took the man's two young daughters as hostages, treating them "in a manner too inhuman and revolting to dwell upon." Communities beseeched Confederate president Jefferson Davis to send in troops to protect their "defenseless women."

Belle did not consider herself one of them.

"Let go my mother!" she screamed.

The Dutchman looked up at her and grinned.

Belle could stand it no longer. Her indignation was "roused beyond control"; her blood "literally boiling" in her veins. The room seemed to skid to a stop, and Belle became the only moving thing inside it. Her hand grasped her pistol, finger curling around the trigger. She found a clearing amid the tangle of limbs, her target offering himself up. Letting instinct dictate aim, she bucked from the force of her shot. The circle split, bodies retreating, and there was nothing to break the soldier's fall.

Belle heard the terse crack of bone against wood. She saw the blood pulse from his neck. She looked at her pistol in her hand, smoke still wisping from the barrel, and realized what she had done. She let it slide from her fingers, landing by the toe of her button-up boots. She heard screams, her mother's and Eliza's, sounding miles and miles away. All of her seventeen years seemed crammed into those seconds. Her heart scrabbled in her chest. Several soldiers shifted in her direction, threatening to kill her.

She returned to herself, then, the moment sliding into focus. She remembered who these men were, why they were there, what they had almost done.

She heard herself speak before she had a chance to contemplate her words: "Only those who are cowards shoot women," she said, and spread open her arms. "Now shoot!"

From Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott Copyright © 2014 by Karen Abbott. Reprinted courtesy of Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.