Love and Valor

"Love and Valor" is a tremendously moving American story told through actual Civil War letters between Captain Jacob and Emeline Ritner. Their letters tell the story of a Union captain from Iowa and his wife, who maintained a family and farm during the war. The devotion they shared to each other, patriotism, loneliness, and anguish shines through with each word in this heart wrenching correspondence.

"Love and Valor" is a tremendously moving American story told through actual Civil War letters between Captain Jacob and Emeline Ritner. Their letters tell the story of a Union captain from Iowa and his wife, who maintained a family and farm during the war. The devotion they shared to each other, patriotism, loneliness, and anguish shines through with each word in this heart wrenching correspondence. Originally published in 2000, this update after 20 years includes additional stories and many pictures that Jacob and Emeline's great great grandson, Charles Larimer, has collected since the initial publication.

Charles F. Larimer, the great great grandson of Jacob and Emeline Ritner, was born to an American father and Canadian mother in a U.S. Army Hospital in Trieste, Italy in 1953. He was raised in Sioux City, Iowa, where he attended public schools, and graduated from the University of Iowa in 1975 with a degree in mathematics. He lived in the Chicago area during most of the period while he researched the original version of the book, which made it easy for him to travel to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa on his research expeditions. He now lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife and family. Larimer also edited the book "Tales of Dunichity: The Stories of Willie MacQueen" based on tales collected from a distant uncle in Scotland, and The Love and Valor Cemeteries of Henry County, Iowa.