In order to appeal more directly to regional audiences, editor Charles Larimer is splitting Love and Valor into five chapter-books. Working backwards, we present the last chapter first – A Union Soldier in Savannah and the Carolinas – A Love and Valor Chapter.

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The full book, first published in the year 2000, received wide-spread recognition, including regional notice in Savannah: 

 

• In 2000, the officials at the famous Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah included Jacob Ritner’s description of Bonaventure Cemetery when they submitted their formal application to have Bonaventure Cemetery included in the National Register of Historic Places administered by the National Park Service.

 

• The reprint edition (published 2001) of Savannah – A Historical Portrait by Margaret Wayt DeBolt also includes Jacob Ritner’s description of Bonaventure Cemetery.

 

• The current web page “Forest City of the South - Tree Quotes - Voices For the Trees of Savannah, GA” includes a quote from Jacob Ritner.

 

With this Savannah and the Carolinas edition, Larimer also includes his personal stories of meeting Margaret Wayt DeBolt and how she helped him meet the modern day Savannah resident Haywood Nichols, the great grandson of the Ice Merchant of Savannah, Alfred Haywood, who hosted Captain Jacob Ritner for Christmas dinner in 1864 at the end of Sherman’s March to the Sea while the Union Army occupied Savannah. Margaret Wayt DeBolt’s book, Savannah Spectres and Other Strange Tales, is the basis for the many ghost tours currently conducted in Savannah.

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