Ann DeWolf Erb

Frances DeWolf, wife of Seventh Cavalry surgeon James DeWolf, lay in bed alone on a frigid morning in 1875, listening to her husband’s activities in their military quarters—opening the parlor stove, tossing in logs, the metal-on-metal screech as he closed the stove door. She knew she should get up, but instead she curled under the warmth of heaped blankets and recalled their adventure so far. They had met in the Oregon wilderness where James was an enlisted hospital steward at an Army camp and she a teacher for ranchers’ children. She was 19 and he was 28 when they were married. In 1873, James applied for and was granted a transfer to a post near Boston so he could attend Harvard Medical School. But even with his Harvard degree, he wouldn’t leave the Army. So here they were in the middle of a frozen prairie. There were rumors that Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer would lead the cavalry in a campaign against roaming Indians next year. If true, she hoped her husband wouldn’t have to go off to fight as well. Voices in Our Souls, a historical novel based on fact, tells James and Fannie’s poignant story—one filled with joys and triumphs, regrets and sorrows, and above all else, enduring love.