By November 29, 2021 2:16 pm
CLARKSVILLE, TN – After three years of research amid a pandemic and a personal battle with cancer, Carolyn Stier Ferrell has finalized a book about a local, unpublished Civil War journal.
“We Wait Beneath the Furnace Blast” is the true story of 18-year-old Eleanora Willauer, grandniece of the iron master Anthony Van Leer, born in in the Cumberland Furnace community, who recorded the tumultuous events surrounding her home throughout the Civil War, according to a news release.
After being raised as a proper Southern woman, Willauer re-evaluated her beliefs when she did the unthinkable by falling in love with a Union officer.
The book intertwines the histories of Montgomery, Dickson and Davidson counties during the period before, during and after the war, and in doing so, fills in many blank spaces in the historical records, the news release said. It includes biographies of the three major families to come out of Cumberland Furnace: The Kirkmans, Willauers and Van Leers.
Ferrell will have a book signing at the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library main floor small lecture room on Sunday, Dec. 12, from 1 to 4 p.m. The cost of the book is $45, and Ferrell’s other books will be available for sale as well.
