For Our Freedom and Yours: A Historical Novel of Polish Roads Through the American Civil War

For Our Freedom and Yours / Za naszą i waszą wolnośc is a dual-language English-Polish historical fiction novel about Polish immigrants, exiles, and soldiers caught in the American Civil War.Poland has been erased from the map by foreign empires, but its people have not forgotten the dream of freedom. In America, Polish exiles carry memories of failed uprisings, lost homes, and the white eagle of a nation that still lives in language, prayer, and memory. When the United States descends into civil war, these men and women must decide what freedom means in a country divided against itself.Jan Ratajczak, a young immigrant from the Prussian partition near Poznań, joins the Union army under Colonel Wlodzimierz Krzyżanowski and the 58th New York, the so-called Polish Legion. To Janek, the Union cause is painfully familiar: a nation must not be allowed to tear itself apart, because Poland has already shown what division can cost.In Texas, Antoni Klos of Panna Maria, a Polish Silesian settlement, is drawn into Confederate service more by community pressure than conviction. Captured after Arkansas Post, he faces a bitter choice: remain a prisoner, or put on Union blue and serve the other side. His journey forces him to confront slavery, loyalty, and the difference between an oath freely chosen and one imposed by circumstance.In New Orleans, Ewa Korzeniowska watches older Polish exiles defend the Confederacy with the language of national liberty. Yet the city around her exposes the contradiction they refuse to see. How can men who mourn Poland's bondage justify the bondage of others?Real historical figures, including Wlodzimierz Krzyżanowski, Ludwik Żychliński, Peter Kiolbassa, Joseph Kargé, Ignatius Szymański, Valery Sulakowski, Leon Jastremski, and the memory of Kazimierz Pulaski, appear alongside fictional characters whose lives carry the emotional weight of divided loyalties.Written in English with Polish translation beneath each paragraph, this bilingual edition is designed for readers interested in Polish history, American Civil War fiction, immigrant stories, and the enduring question of what it means to fight "for our freedom and yours."