2. COURAGE – The Courage of Sarah Emma Edmonds
Twenty-year-old Sarah Emma Edmonds was certain it was the right thing to do. She read the headlines on every newspaper’s front page: President Lincoln needed 75,000 men to serve in the military and help maintain the young nation’s existence. Just three days earlier, the American Civil War began when troops from the newly formed Confederate States of America bombarded and took over Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Sarah was determined, “ I felt called to go and do what I could for defense of the right .” Courage was nothing new to Sarah. Five years earlier, at the age of 15, she ran away from her home in the wilds of New Brunswick, Canada, leaving behind five older siblings, a loving mother, and a cruel father. She left behind the family farm’s hard work, days filled with plowing land, and chopping wood. She left behind the joys of Finally, after years of ignoring what others considered unachiev- able, Charles’s determination paid off. He was mixing rubber sap with sulfur and accidentally dropped the mixture onto a hot stove. When he removed the blob from the heated surface, it felt leath- ery and stretchable. He tested it in both cold and heat, and it stayed strong. He had done it! Without a doubt, his darkest days were in 1836 when William, his only son, passed away when he was just a toddler, becoming the third of Charles’s and Clarissa’s children to pass away in early child- hood. During this period, he remained focused and brave, writing, “My anticipations of ultimate success never changed, nor were my hopes for a moment depressed.”
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