On May 30, 1863, Jane Taylor witnessed Rome, Georgia's first encounter with the Civil War. "The Yankees are coming to burn Rome " The cries were echoed everywhere. The citizens of Rome had sent their soldiers off to fight for the Confederacy. Rome would now be defended by boys, old men and recuperating soldiers from the hospitals. Jane realized the peril for Rome and for her beloved Wood's Bend. She resolved that she and her neighbors would survive in this war They had to plan if they were to survive. From that time the energies and minds of the group living at Wood's Bend focused on ways to defend and feed themselves. "In Sherman's Wake" shows how the Civil War affected those near its edge. The citizens of Wood's Bend planned and cooperated, as they had to if they were to survive. Even so, survival was far from assured. It also relates many episodes of the Civil War. These are seen through the eyes of a precocious teenager who was called to deliver coded messages for the Confederacy.