Welcome to the webpage of Nikki Stoddard Schofield, author of numerous Civil War romance novels. She began her serious writing career as the Thursday editor of the Shortridge Daily Echo, her high school newspaper in 1959. In May she received the Al J. Kettler Award for Journalism. Although Nikki has been writing since then, it wasn’t until 2010 that her first Civil War Romance novel Bondage and Freedom was published.
Ms. Schofield has been very active with the Indianapolis Civil War Round Table. She has served four terms as President, as well as stints as Secretary, Newsletter Editor and Annual Tour Director.
Nikki’s Civil War Romance Novels
Spotsylvania County
When Albany dresses in a federal uniform to deliver a map to General Grant, she does not expect to see a Confederate soldier fall under his horse during the Battle of the Wilderness. Albany rescues Paxton who has been temporarily blinded by the cannon fire that killed his horse. Regaining his sight, Paxton is stunned to learn his companion is the enemy and a woman. As the couple travels the ground, meeting slaves, ne’er-do-wells, and children, they seek safe havens during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Amid the chaos of battle, they fall in love.
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Washington City Citadel
Rosalane Ashmore, wanting to be a nurse, accepts the help of Dr. Aidan Brookston, who came from Scotland to help care for wounded soldiers during the Civil War. With the benefit of a fake marriage which allows Rosalane to serve as an army nurse, she also takes up residence in Aidan’s large house. Historic notes conclude each chapter about their story during the final year of the Civil War.
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Confederates in Canada
When Confederates from Canada set fire to New York City hotels, Anathea awakens Raiford to help her rescue two children whose father dies. Raiford takes the orphans to their grandparents in Canada while serving as a spy for the federal government. Anathea accompanies them as she seeks a new life after being divorced by a member of the Shaker sect. In Guelph, Ontario, they make a life together.
Here’s a review from Kirkus.com
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Savannah Bound
When Lanson Barrington escapes from a Confederate prison, he has no idea what awaits him in Savannah, Georgia. When Adelaide Draycott flees from Bristol, England, she cannot imagine her new life in a Southern city of the Confederate States of America. The couple meet when a train is robbed and they become foster parents to an orphan boy. Living together in a mansion, they fall in love while awaiting the onslaught of the Union Army.
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Treason Afoot
In the midst of the Civil War, Democratic leaders in Indiana developed treasonous plots to overthrow the federal government. At the same time, a Union veteran, Jay Hadley, struggled to overcome post traumatic stress, and Emeline Tanner fled from an unhappy home to find peace, purpose, and love in Indianapolis.
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Alas Richmond
As the capital of the Confederacy experienced its final days, Verity Stuart, a lifelong resident of Richmond, Virginia, was falling in love with an Englishman, Giles Tredwell, who was spying for the Union.
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Bondage and Freedom
When the Yankee nurse’s wagon overturns, she does not expect a captain of Confederate cavalry to rescue her. Unable to reveal her identity to the enemy, Lydia remains silent until Brinton’s tender care overcomes her fear. In the final days of the Civil War, Lydia and Brinton strive to serve their causes in East Tennessee and find something more powerful than hatred. The bondage of war gives way to freedom in their love for each other.
This was the first of Nikki’s Civil War romance novels.
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What Nikki’s Readers Say About Her Civil War Romance Novels
Washington City Citadel ” So vividly written, one can see and smell the alleyways, hear the clop of the horses and feel what a tenuous life it was for most. – Linda S.
Spotsylvania County “Great book. The attention to details is amazing.” – Jessica
Confederates in Canada “I really enjoy reading Civil War romances written by Nikki. I can’t wait to turn the page and see what is going to happen next.” – Anonymous
Savannah Bound “Ms. Schofield’s passion for the Civil War, historical detail, character development, and her faith make her books well worth reading.” – Rickard L.
Treason Afoot “Nikki Schofield has done some of the most extensive research on Indianapolis’s history during the Civil War period that I’ve seen done.” – Hawthorne
Alas Richmond – “I couldn’t put this book down when I started to read it !” – Paula S.
Bondage and Freedom – “I loved it. This is a compelling story of an unlikely romance set in the Civil War. The author’s knowledge of her chosen era is obvious. – MattieMae
A New Genre in Civil War Romance Novels
The key to writing good historical romance novels is doing historical research. Nikki’s novels are meticulously researched, and she visits all the places that she writes about. Each novel contains the following information:
- Cast of Characters: Each book has a cast of characters, which includes the person’s year of birth, their occupation, and whether they are real or fictional.
- Chronology of historical events, which allows the reader to understand the bigger picture of what is happening during the time period of the novel
- Questions for classroom discussions Ms. Schofield’s novels are appropriate for junior high school students and above.
- The Historical Notes section provides a variety of interesting tidbits, such as:
- Although the Navy used Gatling guns, the Army Quartermaster refused to pay $1,000 each for them. General Benjamin Butler bought six of them with his own money.
- Medical care for the wounded improved greatly as the war progressed. Surgeon General William Hammond established the Army Medical Museum which collected specimens and reports from doctors. In the Confederacy, Major Hunter Holmes McGuire established the ambulance corps.
- Mental illness was poorly understood during the Civil War. Mentally ill people were referred to as “Lepers, moral refuse and demon-possessed.” It was Dorthea Dix, who served as Superintendent of Army Nurses during the war, who crusaded to change this view.
- General Grant had an extremely good memory of maps. Once he saw one, he rarely needed to look at it again. He also had a very good sense of direction. The only time he became confused with direction was in Cairo, Illinois. The numerous bends of the Mississippi River had him thinking that the sun was rising in the west one morning.
The Story Behind Washington City Citadel
Here’s Nikki’s account of her research for Washington City Citadel.
Memories of my grandfather, Frederick John Burns (1875-1956), a homeopathic doctor who graduated from Rush Medical School in Chicago, and his daughter who was my mother, Lois Burns Stoddard (1916-2003), a graduate of the Henry Ford Nurses Training School in Detroit, stirred my interest in the history of medicine. I have read books on the subject for years and was impressed by my visit to the Civil War Museum of Medicine in Hagerstown, Maryland.
The idea about the two soldiers who, during the Peninsula Campaign, suffered from malaria that resulted in their developing a high fever, and the fever killing the syphilis spirochetes, came from my work at the Indiana Medical History Museum. In that building, the doctors studied the malarial treatment for syphilis. Dr. Walter Bruetsch (1896-1977) came from Heidelberg, Germany, to Indianapolis in 1925 to further his research on this groundbreaking cure for syphilis. However, only about thirty percent of the patients with syphilis at Central State Hospital were cured. When Dr. Bruetsch also experimented with penicillin, the German doctor concluded that drug to be far superior, and the malarial treatment ended.
In July 2016, I traveled to Alexandria, Virginia, and Washington, DC, to do research for this book. I was especially interested in historic buildings in order to describe the area. I walked the streets of Alexandria in ninety-degree heat. At the Book Bank Used Books on King Street, I talked to Ms. Becky Squires, who lives on Queen Street and who was very helpful in providing historic information. In Washington, I observed the contrast of the wide streets, so different from Old Town Alexandria. The trip was beneficial in helping me visualize the two locations at the time of the Civil War.
About Civil War Romance Author Nikki Schofield
Nikki Stoddard Schofield is the mother of two sons, Rob who lives with his wife Vicki in Ohio, and Gaven who lives with his wife Christine and three daughters in Virginia. She has five granddaughters, Bridget, Stephanie, Abigail, Gabrielle, and Lily; one grandson, Nicholas; Three great-grandsons, Gonzalo, Elias, and Sebastian and two great-granddaughters, Bella and Ana.
From 1974 to 2012, Nikki was the law librarian at the Indianapolis office of Bingham Greenebaum Doll LLP, formerly Bingham Summers Welsh & Spilman. Upon entering phased retirement, she took a second job as the Staff Genealogist at Crown Hill Cemetery, where she works on Fridays. Also at Crown Hill, the third largest private cemetery in the country, Nikki serves as a tour guide specializing in the Civil War personalities.
In October 2011, Nikki began volunteering one day a week at the Indiana State Library, Manuscript and Rare Book Division, where she created finding aids available on the Internet. Many of the items Nikki summarized in these finding aids are from Civil War collections. This work enabled her to read what people of that era wrote and thought, thus providing authenticity to her novels.
A member of Speedway Baptist Church, Ms. Schofield is an ordained deacon, moderator of the business meetings, adult Sunday school teacher, and assistant treasurer. For five years, she served as one of two representatives from the North Central region on the Coordinating Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship with which her church is affiliated. In April 2014, she was elected Moderator of the North Central Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Nikki is a member of the Baptist History & Heritage Society as well as a member of the Fellowship of Baptist Historians.
For many years, Ms. Schofield gave first-person presentations of Civil War women including Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross; Belle Boyd, Confederate spy; Mary Surratt, Lincoln conspirator; Mary Ann Morrison Jackson, wife of Stonewall Jackson; Helen Pitts Douglass, the second wife of orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass; Lucinda Morton, the wife of Indiana’s Civil War Governor; Susan Slater, Confederate spy; and several others.
Nikki has also been involved with two books that are not Civil War Romances. She co-authored The Linden Years: 1918-1928, which describes life in Linden, Michigan during that time. She also edited Fear and Fatigue: The World War II Memoir of Claude Mendenhall Spilman, Jr.