Stitch of Courage, the third book in the Trail of Thread series, tells the story of the orphaned Maggie Kennedy, who followed her brothers to Kansas in the late 1850s.The niece of Margaret Ralston Kennedy, the main character in Hubalek's Thimble of Soil book, Maggie married the son of Deborah Pieratt, whose story was told in the Hubalek's Trail of Thread book.In letters to her sister in Ohio, Maggie describes how the women of Kansas faced the demons of the Civil War, fighting bravely to protect their homes and families while never knowing from one day to the next whether their men were alive or dead on the faraway battlefield.We think the Civil War took place in the South, but the Plains States endured their share of battles and tragedy. Not only did Kansas and Missouri experience a resurgence in the terrorist raids that plagued them in the years before the war, the Confederate Army tried several times to sweep across the Great Plains and capture the West.Feel the uncertainty, doubt, and danger faced by the pioneer women as they defend their homes and pray for their men during the Civil War.Twelve old quilt patterns are mentioned in the letters, and the sketched designs are in the front of the book for reference.