title: The Harvesting
author: Hayes, Celia
description: Adelsverein: The Harvesting
   brings the saga of the Becker and Richter families in the Texas Hill Country to a triumphant conclusion in  this final volume of the
  Adelsverein Trilogy
  .
  The Civil War is over and the soldiers return home, to take up the old lives ... if they can. The end of the Civil War has left Texas and the South broken and defeated. Too many young men have died in the fighting, families have been destroyed, their homes left wrecked and desolate. But  there is hope in the ashes.  Hansi Richter has come home determined to build a mercantile empire, with the aid of his strong-minded daughter Anna, and his widowed sister-in-law, Magda Becker. Magda's son Dolph wishes to reclaim the family ranch, confiscated during the war, while his cousin Peter Vining only wishes to forget his service in the Confederate Army, which left him an amputee, and the only survivor of four brothers. Do they have the strength, the heart, and the courage to begin building their lives again ... and to dare to venture the first steps on a new path?
  A path of silver and gold, a bold new adventure into the wilderness - taking Texas longhorn cattle on the long  trail drive north  to the new transcontinental railroad  may lead to success. But the the malice of an old enemy still haunts Dolph Becker and his family; the man who murdered their father during the war is still alive, and even more driven to seek revenge. The constant terror of raids by Comanche Indians may yet destroy Hansi Richter's family, the  sanity of his wife ... and the future of the beautiful Rosalie, newly-wed to the love of her life.
  Adelsverein: The Harvesting
   - It's the story of a family, building a life, a future ... and building America..