Intra Muros: My Dream of Heaven info
Rebecca Ruter Springer was 29 when the American Civil War started in 1861. When the war ended five years later, 620,000 soldiers and countless civilians lay dead. It is not surprising, therefore, that the dead and heaven were much considered over the next 40 years in the USA. And it was this spiritual climate that created Springer's classic, Intra Muros, or as it is now generally known, My Dream of Heaven.Rebecca was born in 1832, in Indianapolis, Indiana, the daughter of a Methodist clergyman; she graduated from the Wesleyan Female College in 1850, and Methodist Christianity remained her spiritual home. In 1859, two years before the Civil War, she married William Springer, who went on to become a lawyer and member of the Illinois General Assembly. They had one son, also called William, but Rebecca's health was never good; she was described by one person as 'feeble'. In 1868 the couple went on a two-year European tour to improve her health, but it remained poor until her death. It was