Solomon joined the 6th Michigan Cavalry as a bugler the last day of 1863 and was captured at the battle of Trevilian Station in Virginia, spending a few months at the notorious Andersonville prison in Georgia. After the war he settled in the Grattan area north of Grand Rapids, and Ramsdell Road still winds through that beautiful country, alongside the Bostwick Lake Cemetery where he and his family are buried.

Solomon Ramsdell suffered heartbreaking events in his war experience and family life, and his narrative voice in chapters of Rosette has drawn in many readers of that novel. His story bears telling in more detail, and this new companion novel stands on its own, yet harmonizes with Rosette.