Blood Moon (Ella Wood, 2)

by Michelle Isenhoff

  Dear Emily,

  I am sorry I must be the bearer of bad news. I wish I could deliver it in person, as it is not something that belongs in a letter, but your father will not let me risk a trip to the city. Mr. and Mrs. Cutler received a telegram only days ago. Jovie has been listed among those missing at Gettysburg…

  30

  Emily knew only the pain of her chest caving in. The news came out of nowhere, hitting her like a well-aimed kick. She could not draw breath.

  Missing!

  She clutched her abdomen. The torment went on and on.

  What did it mean? Was Jovie alive? Was he hurt? Was he dead?

  Her face crumpled like the letter in her hand. Sorrow exploded within her, ripping into her vital organs and rolling up her throat in great, wrenching sobs. The bombardment had moved inside her. She had never felt such anguish. Not when her father disowned her. Not when Jack died. Not even when Thad betrayed her.

  Jovie wasn’t just part of her childhood. He was part of her. He was the air she breathed, the water she drank, the ground she walked on. He was intrinsic to her very existence. Aunt Margaret was right. She did love him. She loved him with every fiber of her being. How had she been able to fool herself for so long? How was she supposed to carry on without him?

  Emily staggered to her bureau and returned with his few remaining letters. One by one, she tore them open, mourning over their sweet contents. They were breath. They were life. They were loss. Why hadn’t she read them when she still had the opportunity to respond? What had stopped her? What foolishness held her apart for so long?

  All of her or none of her. Those had been his terms.

  Why had it taken tragedy to finally surrender to them?

  Her mourning was interrupted by the shriek of a shell passing overhead. It exploded somewhere in the neighborhood behind Aunt Margaret’s house and catapulted Emily from her bed.

  The Yankees were firing on the city!

  Another screech passed nearby and landed with a throb that shook the windows.

  “Aunt Margaret!” she screamed, tearing from the room.

  She found the entire household gathering in the dining room in various states of discomposure and undress. Trudy huddled in a corner, sobbing into a blanket. Jonas paced from door to window and back again, craning his neck at the night sky. Stella stood calmly, as did Paxton, who gripped the handles of Aunt Margaret’s wheelchair.

  As far as Emily knew, the city had made no preparations for a bombardment other than evacuation orders, which had only been partially followed. The attack was unexpected, the remaining citizens entirely exposed. She didn’t even know where the assault stemmed from or in which direction safety lay.

  Emily shored up her shoulders decisively, fighting down her panic for the sake of the others. “We will not cower here defenselessly. Stella, go prepare us some tea and sandwiches. The rest of you, gather food and water, the silver, jewelry, and anything else of value we can carry away. Trudy, you’ll pack my trunk and another for Aunt Margaret. Paxton, harness the horses. And Jonas, run to my parents’ house and tell anyone who wants to leave the city to join us here. I’m taking all of you to Ella Wood.”

  The servants scattered to do her bidding, grateful for something to do as the next shell exploded in the direction of White Point Garden. Emily lit an oil lamp and set it on the table. Then she began setting out table service for all of them. It took her mind off Jovie, at least.

  “My precious girl.” Aunt Margaret spoke through pale, trembling lips. “I’m very glad you’re here with me.”

  Emily smiled. “If we’re going to die, at least we’ll do it together and with something in our stomachs. You’re not going to put up a fuss about leaving, are you?”

  Aunt Margaret shook her head, unable to mask the sorrow in her eyes. “I think I’ve known for a long time that this day would come. I just hoped—” She couldn’t go on.

  Emily leaned down to squeeze her hand. “Me too.”

  She changed out of her nightgown and helped Aunt Margaret dress. One by one, the servants returned and the carriage was packed. Then they huddled around the table, slave and free, sipping their tea, chewing their meal, and waiting for Jonas. He arrived half an hour later accompanied by the Preston carriage. The Malones, Tandey, Betsy, and Zeke rode inside; mounds of boxes and trunks were lashed to the roof. A farm wagon that had been procured from somewhere followed behind, filled to capacity with the remaining Preston slaves, their meager belongings, more household goods, and crates containing the last few chickens. The milk cow was tied behind. The hogs had been eaten long ago.

  “Are you going with us?” Emily asked as the doctor alighted.

  “No. I’m needed here. But Ida has agreed to leave the city. You will take her?”

  “Most definitely.”

  “Thank you.” Some of the worry lines lifted from his face. “The bombs are coming from the Sea Islands—”

  “The Sea Islands!” she exclaimed. “But they’re four miles away!”

  “At least. We’ll be at the very edge of their range.”

  She should not be surprised any longer at what the Union military was capable of.

  The clang of fire bells sounded somewhere to the north, and she turned to the doctor in terror. Visions of the Great Fire remained untarnished in her memory.

  “They’re incendiary shells,” Dr. Malone confirmed. “But the night is calm. The flames will be extinguished.”

  Paxton helped Aunt Margaret into her carriage. Stella and Trudy settled beside her. The others would ride on the farm wagon or walk behind. Emily was the last to climb aboard.

  “Drive carefully,” Dr. Malone instructed. “The roads are crowded, but the initial panic will soon die down. You should be out of danger in a few blocks.”

  With a slap of the reins, the caravan creaked into motion. Emily lifted a hand in farewell. “Stay safe,” she called before the predawn gloom snatched the doctor from sight.

  The carriage turned onto East Bay and joined the congestion moving slowly through the dockside district. Emily rode in silence, listening to the shriek of falling shells. It was a wild, eerie noise. She maintained hope that Charleston might yet hold, but the foundations of her world were crumbling. Ella Wood was her last remaining sanctuary. If the city fell, how long would it take before the maelstrom swept over outlying plantations?

  She set her mouth in a grim line. Even if her home escaped unscathed, she knew what awaited at her journey’s end. She had disobeyed her father and helped four slaves to freedom. Certainly by now he suspected her role in the escape. And by attending school, she had disregarded rules of propriety laid down over generations, bringing his reputation as well as her own into question. By nightfall, the fireworks over Charleston might appear tame.

  Numb with grief and exhaustion, Emily watched the city pass outside the window. She had arrived more than a year and a half before with a heart full of dreams. Their realization had left her unfulfilled. She’d come in a spirit of independence. It had been broken by fire, loss, betrayal, and the legacy of a Blood Moon. She’d left home with Jovie. She was returning without him.

  Emptiness engulfed her. Ella Wood might offer refuge, but it could never again bring her peace. Without the promise of Jovie’s return, the future stretched before her long, cold, and dark. She would bear up under the coming hardships. She always did. But somewhere among the tears and ruins of Charleston, the flame that lit her heart had snuffed out.

  Don’t miss the final book of the Ella Wood series...

  Coming May 25, 2017.

  Now available.

  Thanks for reading!

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  Historical Notes

  As always, I’d like to take a few pages to sort out fact from fiction and include some of the fascinating details I’ve encountered in my research. Many of the historical people, places, and images featured in the book can be viewed on my Pinterest page. I did my best to portray an accurate glimpse of this time period. If inaccuracies are found, I accept full responsibility.

  Aside from the actual battles and prominent figures of the Civil War, the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts (today called the Maryland Institute College of Art) is perhaps the most important historical component referenced in Blood Moon. It was the second mechanical (vocational) school in America, opening in 1825. Women were admitted in 1854, placing it among the earliest institutions of higher learning to do so. While women were instrumental in administering, teaching, and developing curricula within the school when it opened in the 1850s, including Julia Spear and Mary Maguire, both mentioned in the story, no women held positions of authority in the 60s when Emily attends.

  Many of the school’s early records were lost in a fire, but I have reconstructed the school year, facilities, and curricula to the best of my ability from surviving records. Many thanks to Ms. Katherine Cowan, Senior Research Librarian at MICA, for locating and making them available to me and to Molly Walker, director of my local library, who made the cross-state loan happen. It is interesting to note that the school’s Great Hall really was used as a Union hospital following Antietam in mid-September, and remarkably, cleared out in time for the Exhibition to open there on October first.

  David Woodward, principal of the men’s and women’s Schools of Design, is the only other school-related historical figure included. Professor Woodward was especially instrumental in implementing the Institute’s photography program. He did design and patent the Woodward Solar Camera, the most widely used enlargement camera in America at the time. Alexander Gardner, the manager of Matthew Brady’s Washington studio, did in fact own one. It is entirely possible that Gardner and Woodward knew each other, as they lived only 40 miles apart and were professionals in the same field.

  Mathew Brady, who suffered failing eyesight by the start of the Civil War, took few, if any, of the famous images he is known for. He was, however, the primary organizer and financial backer of a staff of photographers. It was actually Alexander Gardner who photographed the Antietam battlefield, along with James F. Gibson. I have accurately described the images. They did debut in Brady’s New York gallery in October 1862, giving the public its first exposure to the carnage of the battlefield and no doubt contributing to the New York draft riots six months later. Gardner broke with Brady over copyright issues in early 1863, but it is entirely within the realm of possibility that he would have been in Washington with duplicates of the Antietam images at the time Emily visited Brady’s studio. The layout of the studio and the artwork displayed in it were exactly as I have portrayed.

  John Wilkes Booth was a popular actor during the 1850s and 60s and had gained considerable fame for his charm, good looks, and athletic brand of acting by the time Jovie and Emily visited the Holliday Street Theater in Baltimore. A native of Maryland, he performed regularly in the Holliday Street Theater. However, he began touring nationally the year before Emily and Jovie’s visit and was not actually in Maryland at that time. An ardent Confederate nationalist and spy, he used his unique position to move about North and South and gather information to aid the Confederate cause. He astounded the nation when he shot President Lincoln a few years later.

  Winslow Homer, who became a celebrated American artist, did get his start illustrating for Harper’s Weekly. The newspaper’s Civil War editions are wonderfully preserved in an online digital archive and were a tremendous resource in the writing of this book. The February 15, 1862 copy William leaves with Emily is accurately described, with the exception of Lizzie’s image.

  At the time of the 1861 Great Fire of Charleston, engines were not yet pulled by horses but pushed by men who were often too exhausted to work the manual pumps effectively. A big thank-you to Grant Mishoe of Charleston, SC, for his expertise on the Charleston fire, fire company structure, and equipment.

  In August 1861, the Union banned the exchange of letters between North and South except by Flag of Truce, a system of exchange through secure checkpoints in which every letter was censored.

  The Battle of Antietam, which took place in Sharpsburg, Maryland in September of 1862, really was heard in Baltimore, sixty miles away.

  During his reading lesson, Jeremiah quotes actual text from the second level of the McGuffey Reader.

  A total lunar eclipse (a blood moon) actually took place on June 12, 1862, as described. Ned’s explanation is an actual African legend.

  Lung fever, which Ketch contracted onboard ship, was actually pneumonia. The summer sickness from which Emily suffered, also called fever and ague, is today known as malaria and transferred by mosquitoes, as is yellow fever. Camp fever, which Solomon Beatty referenced, was actually typhoid fever, a bacterial infection and the number two killer in the Civil War, responsible for a full quarter of disease deaths.

  Several readers have questioned whether “okay” was really in use during this time period. It was. “OK” originated in New England in 1839 and was short for “oll korrect”, a silly corruption of “all correct”. Further popularized during Martin VanBuren’s 1840 reelection bid (his nickname was Old Kinderhook), it soon became part of popular vernacular.

  Finally, I’d like to list the most significant of the hundreds of source materials I used in the research of Blood Moon:

  Burton, E. Milby. The Seige of Charleston: 1861–1865. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1970.

  Dickert, D. Augustus. History of Kershaw’s Brigade. Newberry, SC: E. H. Aull Company, 1899.

  Frost, Douglas L. Making History / Making Art: MICA. Baltimore: Maryland Institute College of Art, 2010.

  Glickman, Gena Debora. A Study of the Role of Women in the Transformation of the Curriculum at the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts from 1826–1875. PhD diss, University of Michigan, 2001.

  Wise, Stephen R. Gate of Hell: Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1994.

  Ella Wood novellas

  (Accompaniments to the original Ella Wood trilogy.)

  Lizzie, Jack, Jovie...you've grown to love them. Now come to a deeper understand of these important characters through their own experiences.

  Boxed set coming September 25, 2017.

  Individual titles available through Halloween then only in boxed set.

  Lizzie

  Lizzie has made it aboard a ship without anyone guessing her deception, but many miles still lie between South Carolina and freedom in Canada. With two small children to hide, she and Ketch will no longer have their former master’s daughter, Emily, nearby to protect them. They’ll need to rely on their wits, their strength, and each other. Though Lizzie loves Ketch and longs to merge their two small families, she’s still haunted by that violent night at Ella Wood nearly a year before that resulted in the birth of her son. Will she be able to put that nightmare behind her? Will the north hold the peace, safety, and love she so desperately desires? But before the steamer even leaves Charleston harbor, fire breaks out in the city, threatening the wharf and their carefully laid plans…

  Jack

  For the better part of a decade, Jack has lived a double life. To all appearances, he’s the spoiled heir to one of Charleston’s wealthiest plantations. But his life would be forfeit and his family in jeopardy if anyone knew what he’d really been up to. He’d be shunned from polite society if anyone guessed his plans for Ella Wood. So he maintains his lonely façade, with no realistic hopes of marriage and only slaves to confide in. When war comes to Charleston, Jack enlists in the South Carolina infantry. But military service brings him into contact with a beautiful and unlikely confidante. Will his dreams
for Ella Wood outlast the war? Will his new love?

  Jovie (coming September 25, 2017)

  Find out what happened to Jovie following Gettysburg. Spoiler alert! You have to read book three of the original trilogy, Ebb Tide, first!

  Divided Decade Collection

  (The Candle Star is the prequel to Ella Wood.)

  Series librarian-nominated for the 2012 Great Michigan Read.

  As a teacher, I wrote the Divided Decade Collection with the classroom in mind. This collection spans the years surrounding the war and travels from city, to farm, to wilderness, showing the war from several angles. Each of these loosely related books can be used as a stand-alone novel in the classroom.

  The Candle Star FREE!

  Detroit, 1858

  After a tantrum, Emily Preston is shipped from her plantation home to her inn-keeping uncle in Detroit. There Emily meets Malachi, son of freed slaves, who challenges many ideas she grew up believing. But when Emily stumbles upon two runaways hidden in her uncle's barn, she finds that old ways die hard. And Mr. Burrows, the charming Southern slave catcher, is only yards away, lodged in the hotel.

  Blood of Pioneers

  Wayland, Michigan, 1862

  Hannah craves excitement, but all local adventures dried up long ago, when her parents unpacked their wagon on the Michigan frontier. Then war breaks out and her father and brother leave to fight the Confederacy. Hannah is left at home chafing under the boredom of never-ending chores--until the farm is threatened. The one place she longs to leave suddenly becomes the one place she'll do anything to save.