Through Many Dangers

<p><strong style=color: rgba(33 43 54 1)>August 1862.</strong><span style=color: rgba(33 43 54 1)> Eighteen-year-old Harm van Wyke finds his quiet life in the Dutch Reformed community of Holland Michigan upended by the American Civil War. When it becomes clear the war will not be as easily won as once believed President Lincoln calls for 300000 volunteers to defend the Union. Harm's minister Rev. Albertus van Raalte encourages the young men of his community to join the cause. Harm's father bitterly opposes the idea. Harm hesitates to leave his home but when his friends portray the war as a grand adventure he gives in and joins them. Together some eighty boys and young men from Holland join the 25</span><sup style=color: rgba(33 43 54 1)>th</sup><span style=color: rgba(33 43 54 1)> Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(33 43 54 1)>As Harm and his friends travel to army camps in Kalamazoo Michigan and then Louisville Kentucky they face daily temptations to forget God and turn from their faith. Fellow soldiers think nothing of taking the Lord's name in vain. They gamble drink and forage from neighboring homes and farms. Harm and his friends gather regularly to sing the old psalms and discuss the Bible but still on occasion they stumble and fall.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(33 43 54 1)>As the war progresses the boys from Holland battle Confederate General John Hunt Morgan in Western Kentucky and endure an arduous march to Eastern Tennessee where they join the fighting around Knoxville. Later they take part in General Sherman's prolonged and bloody Atlanta campaign. Along the way Harm and his friends face the harsh realities of war-exposure disease injury and death. In the midst of such hardship Harm's faith is tried at every turn. His greatest conflict turns out to be spiritual. Will God give Harm the strength to stand for what is right even if he finds himself opposed by friends?</span></p>