“No one’s going to take Quesinberry land!”

With that brave promise, eighteen-year-old Oliver Quesinberry leaves his young wife Mahala, his infant son, and the family farm to join the Confederates and preserve his treasured piece of the South from the Northern aggressors. Confident that the war will be over in a few months, he is assigned as drummer to the 29th Virginia Regiment. In his absence, his parents Abigail and Andrew struggle to keep the farm going, caring for five young children as their grown sons all enlist. But when Andrew also enlists and leaves Abigail alone, she must call on every resource of strength and intelligence to overcome her heartbreak and fear to emerge as the unbreakable backbone of her family. On the front lines of the Civil War, Oliver comes under the command of General James Longstreet and then General George Pickett, putting him in the middle of the infamous conflict at Gettysburg that came to be known as “Pickett’s Charge.” From the unfathomable courage and endurance of the family at home to the heartbreak and bitterness of Oliver’s service at the front, The Last Drumbeat is a compelling family saga that follows the Quesinberry family from the first days of the Civil War in 1861 to its conclusion with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in 1865.

Loretta Quesinberry Pickens is a creative spirit who has spent most of her adult life painting, writing, acting, decorating, and gardening. Born into a large, rambunctious coal-mining family, she found solitude and comfort in the West Virginia woods, creating imaginary worlds. After marrying young and raising two daughters, she began to explore artistic expression, taking painting and writing classes in New York City. A visit to the family farm inspired her to write The Last Drumbeat, as she immersed herself in her ancestors’ stories and legends, enhanced by Loretta’s extensive research into genealogy and the Civil War. The result is a novel that weaves her forbears’ past and America’s history into an authentic, inspired story.