Yankees In the Courthouse: A Florida Civil War & Reconstruction Biography
Yankees in the Courthouse: A Florida Civil War & Reconstruction Biography
Book 3 in the Palmetto Pioneers series.
Florida’s pioneers endured migration, hardship, and civil strife. But nothing will test their spirit more than the years during and after the Civil War. When Union soldiers filled the courthouse, neighbors sought revenge. A once-close community will strain under occupation. This was more than the end of the Civil War—it was the beginning of a new, uncertain South.
She isn’t a stranger to survival. But can she persevere when the North occupies her town and shatters their way of life?
Florida, 1862. Mary Adeline Walker Andrews has weathered hardship before, but the Civil War brings trials unlike any she’s known. With her husband and eldest sons away fighting, the devoted mother of eleven draws on faith, determination, and Southern ingenuity to keep her family safe and their home intact.
When Union troops march into Monticello and claim the courthouse as their own, Mary’s world changes overnight. Old Florida’s quiet order gives way to chaos as Reconstruction forces outsiders into power and neighbors turn against one another. Amid loss, fear, and uncertainty, Mary’s courage is tested as she struggles to protect her children and preserve the values that once defined her community.
Based on meticulous historical research and family records, Yankees in the Courthouse vividly portrays the human cost of war and the resilience of women who refused to surrender to despair. The third book in Cindy Roe Littlejohn’s Palmetto Pioneers series, it honors the faith, endurance, and spirit that carried a generation through one of America’s most turbulent eras.
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The Emigrants: A Florida Historical Biography
The first book in a series of three, The Emigrants follows the real-life Walker family in their journey to a frontier that had only been a part of the new nation for less than a decade.
From Harmony to Hostility: A Historical Biography About Florida’s Path to the Civil War
From Harmony to Hostility is the real-life story of Mary Walker Andrews, a strong-willed woman who perseveres through life's trials and tribulations. Set against the backdrop of Antebellum Florida, this tale follows Mary's journey from 1845 to the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. It is the second book in the series.
Palmetto Pioneers: An Award Winning Series
The national Independent Publishers awarded the first book an IPPY bronze medal for Nonfiction in the Southeast. Also, the Florida Authors and Publishers Association awarded it two gold medals for History and Biography and a silver for its Cover Design. It was also a finalist for General History and Best New Nonfiction with the international American Book Fest Best Book Awards.
The second book in the series is a Forword INDIES Book of the Year finalist for Nonfiction in the Southeast and was awarded a bronze medal for History at the Florida Authors and Publishers Association, President’s Book Awards. It was also a finalist in Nonfiction - General in the American Book Fest Awards.
In Book 1, The Emigrants, Mary Adeline Walker, a South Carolina cattleman’s daughter, followed her family into the wilds of territorial Florida in 1829. In frontier Florida, the enemy is nature and man, and the ordinary must become extraordinary—or perish.
With her husband and older sons away at war, Mary must rely on the hard-won lessons she learned upon first settling Florida thirty years earlier. Thrust into a perilous post-war world marked by scarcity, suspicion, and shifting loyalties, she must summon every ounce of grit and ingenuity to protect what remains of her family and hold their world together.
In Book 2, From Harmony to Hostility, after Mary marries William, a gentleman from Washington, DC, they embark on what appears to be a life of perfect harmony in Florida. That is until outside forces bear down on their happiness. Both survived an earlier Indian war, but can they and their children survive a war that engulfs an entire nation? This narrative historical nonfiction book tells their captivating true story of prosperity, Florida in the Civil War, and the devastation of their homeland.
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![Silver Springs Pioneer Village]()
Old Florida Church
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![A wooden gate and fence in a green forest with tall trees and leafy branches.]()
Walker Land Near Elizabeth
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![A large tree with sprawling branches over a grassy field and a wire fence.]()
Walker Land Near Elizabeth
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![Walker Cemetery Road is a dirt road lined with large, old oak trees draped with Spanish moss and fenced with wooden and metal barriers on both sides.]()
Road to the Elizabeth Community & Cemetery
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![Civil War Fort]()
Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island Near Pensacola
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![Historical illustration of Tampa Bay on the Gulf of Mexico showing soldiers marching, horses grazing, tents, a flagpole with the American flag, wooden buildings, and trees.]()
Fort Brooke (present day Tampa)
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![Silver Springs Pioneer Village]()
A Stick & Mud Chimney
The Author
Palmetto Pioneers was researched and written by Cindy Roe Littlejohn, the 3rd Great Granddaughter of the series’ main character Mary Adeline Walker.
