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What does loyalty ask of you when the person you love pulls your heart another way?
In A Little Traitor to the South, Cyrus Townsend Brady brings the Civil War into the homes of Southerners who are not soldiers. Letters, shortages and fear carry the fighting into daily life. Here, private choices matter as much as battles, and love cannot stand apart from the demands of war.
This romance explores what happens when feeling and duty collide. The title’s promise of a traitor carries an edge of irony: what does faithfulness mean when loyalties divide? Brady tells the story with open emotion and strong moral contrasts, asking you to care about the personal cost of sacrifice.
What you’ll discover
- War close to home Enter kitchens, parlors and country roads where the war shapes life beyond the battlefield.
- Love against duty Explore the strain of feelings that pull against the loyalties a person holds dear.
- The cost of sacrifice Consider what loyalty demands when sacrifice means more than a charge across a field.
- A troubling word Weigh the title’s word, traitor, against a romance shaped by divided feelings and duty.
- Feeling without irony Meet a direct storytelling voice that treats private choices with warmth and moral seriousness.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy wartime romance with a sense of humor, quarrelling lovers who are better than they seem, and a real episode of Civil War naval history.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Pride turns love into a quarrel
- The rivals put friendship before jealousy
- Sempland accepts the danger with open eyes
- Fanny fears more than one loss
- Fear leads Fanny into a betrayal
- Silence leaves Sempland facing disgrace
- Loyalty pulls the lovers apart
- Playful romance meets deadly wartime danger
- Generosity cannot prevent a costly mistake
Who’s who
- Fanny GlenA small, fair, strong-willed nurse who heads the women of the Charleston hospital and hides a secret tie to the enemy fleet.
- Rhett SemplandA tall, plain, stubborn lieutenant, long a prisoner, who loves Fanny and wants one chance to prove his courage.
- Harry LacyA handsome, daring major and war hero, ruined by drink, who loves Fanny and hopes to leave the world with honor.
- General BeauregardThe small, formal commander of Charleston's defense, strict about duty yet shrewd and kind enough to look beneath it.
- CaesarThe aged butler of Fanny's household, who follows her orders and shows Sempland into the strong room.
- CatoThe oldest and most sensible of the three young men of Fanny's household who guard the door.
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A Little Traitor to the South
by Cyrus Townsend Brady · 1904
A Charleston nurse locks a lieutenant in a strong room on the night he must sail a death-trap torpedo boat.
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“For the sake of the South, gentlemen. That is our watchword.”
In short
What would you do if the man you love were about to sail a boat that has drowned every crew it ever carried, and you believed that stopping him was the only way to save someone else? Fanny Glen, a nurse in Charleston in February 1864, makes her choice in a single desperate hour.
A Little Traitor to the South at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 35 min1 h 15 min fast, 1 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 23,000 words
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
- First published
- 1904by Cyrus Townsend Brady
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two rivals and one proud woman collide
The story opens in February 1864 in Charleston, South Carolina, a city that has held out against Union ships for two years. Miss Fanny Glen is small, fair-haired and fiercely independent. She faces Lieutenant Rhett Sempland, tall and used to giving orders. He loves her. She is not yet ready to admit that she loves him.
She works in the great general hospital and has become the head of its women. The soldiers call her an angel. Sempland and Major Harry Lacy both met her as patients. Lacy is handsome, gallant and ruined by drink. Sempland spent most of the war as a prisoner in the North, so he has no glory to show. Women find Lacy charming, yet they lean on Sempland.
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Details
- First published
- 1904
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 1 h 45 min
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Brady, Cyrus Townsend. A Little Traitor to the South. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-little-traitor-to-the-south.
Brady, C. T. (2026). A little traitor to the South. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-little-traitor-to-the-south (Original work published 1904)
Brady, Cyrus Townsend. A Little Traitor to the South. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-little-traitor-to-the-south.
@book{brady2026little,
author = {Brady, Cyrus Townsend},
title = {A Little Traitor to the South},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-little-traitor-to-the-south},
note = {First published 1904}
}
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What is A Little Traitor to the South about?
It is a Civil War romance set in Charleston in 1864. A nurse, a plain lieutenant and a heroic but ruined major are caught up in the night attack of a real torpedo boat, the David.
Is A Little Traitor to the South based on a true story?
Its love story is invented, but the attack of the torpedo boat David on the Housatonic in Charleston Harbor is real. The author names the real crew in his preface and wrote the book in 1904.
What was the David in the story?
The David was a small cigar-shaped torpedo boat of boiler iron, about thirty feet long and driven by a hand crank. She carried a powder charge on a spar, and earlier crews had died in her.
The author
Cyrus Townsend Brady
1861–1920 · American historical novelist
Cyrus Townsend Brady (1861–1920) was an American writer and Episcopal clergyman. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and died in Yonkers, New York. He wrote historical novels, biographies, and books about American history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His novels include Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer and A Little Traitor to the South.
“For the sake of the South, gentlemen. That is our watchword.”
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