Harboring the Enemy: The Civil War Heroine History Forgot

Charleston, 1861. Anna Itgen is a twenty-year-old German immigrant, newly married and expecting her first child, when cannon fire erupts from Fort Sumter and upends her world. Within months, her husband is killed at the Battle of Port Royal.

As a single mother, Anna works alongside her neighbors to survive the Union blockade, all while a Confederate prison sits within view of her window, packed with starving captives. She begins slipping bread to guards and prisoners alike. Then she hides an escaped Union officer in her cellar and is summoned before the Confederate provost marshal on charges that could hang her.

Choosing her integrity over self-preservation, Anna Itgen risked everything for a stranger who wore the wrong uniform. A clean read grounded in a true story, Harboring the Enemy is for readers of Erik Larson's The Demon of Unrest and Karen Abbott's Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy.