Taylor Chamberlin

Born and raised in two historic small towns in northern Virginia, I graduated from Cornell and Columbia Universities and served as an officer of the CIA at home and abroad for over 25 years. After retiring, I was able to devote more time to a family farm, open an antique shop specializing in locally made furniture and get involved in local historic preservation organizations. What started as a casual attempt to trace my great-grandfather's Civil War service whetted my interest in local history and publication of three books and a number of articles about Loudoun County, Va. I collaborated with good friend John Souders on Between Reb and Yank, a history of the Civil War in North Loudoun. After almost thirty years of researching my great-grandfather's complicated and fascinating life, I finally decided it was time share it with readers interested in the Civil War and Reconstruction as well as military veterans' affairs and civil service reform and it even tells the story of a woman's struggle for equal rights in government employment.