by Mysti Parker
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Author’s Note
Any historical novel requires a great deal of research. When I set out to discover the real facts behind the fiction of this story, I found several interesting events and personalities. These added a living, breathing feel to Beau and Portia’s fictional struggles. Let me share some of those with you now to provide a deeper insight into their journey.
The Civil War cost countless American lives, not only on the battlefields, but also on the home front. Thousands of young low-income women, especially those in the South like Portia, were widowed, left alone to care for children and tend crops. If they weren’t on the brink of starvation, they could just as easily become victims of raids, crossfire, or disease. Portia’s daughter Abigail, like so many children of the time, succumbed to typhoid fever. Infant mortality rate in those days was already high, but diseases spread by entrenched armies only added to the death toll. Even though death was as common as rain, losing husbands and children still hurt these women to the core. Only by sheer strength of will did they carry on. Many diaries exist today, written by the women who survived such horrors. One of them, A Woman’s Civil War by Cornelia Peake McDonald, chronicled the life of a Confederate widow who lost a husband and a little daughter as the fighting raged on. Her story inspired Portia’s character.
Without a doubt, the horrors of war that Beau and Harry survived fueled the conflict of their story. The Battle of Allatoona Pass, where they were both wounded, while not a major fight, is considered to be one of the bloodiest in the Civil War. According to the Georgia State Parks website, “Of the 5,301 men engaged in the battle (2,025 Union & 3, 276 Confederates), 1,603 were reported killed, wounded or missing. This 30% casualty rate was one of the highest in the war for the time engaged.” (http://gastateparks.org) It was the start of John Bell Hood’s disastrous Nashville Campaign, ending with the even bloodier Battles of Franklin and Nashville, where Beau’s and Jake’s stories intersected.
Though it didn’t lie in the main path of destruction, even the Stanfords’ quiet hometown didn’t remain unscathed. The city of Lebanon, like so many small towns in the South, became a battleground when a Union Calvary surprised Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan at the Odd Fellows Hall. Lucky for Morgan, he escaped in the nick of time and went on to lead “Morgan’s Raid,” an over 1000 mile trek through Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and ending in Ohio, the farthest north that any uniformed Confederate troops ever invaded (Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography, Castle Books, 1992, 1st Ed).
Luckily, that ambush didn’t leave a lasting mark. But as pretty as Lebanon was (and is), some very ugly truths remained. Slavery, of course, though abolished by the time our story began, was an atrocity that wouldn’t soon be forgotten. Real life accounts such as The Narrative of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave provide insight into the abuse and neglect those in bondage experienced day in and day out, as we saw in Tipp and Lucy’s story. One rather funny account, a letter from former slave Jourdan Anderson to his old master, inspired Oliver’s dinner-table rant about the runaway slave who demanded wages for time served (DaytonHistoryBooks.com). The last line of Anderson’s letter sums up the sarcasm and wit his former master deserved: “Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.”
The end of the war didn’t mark the end of the African American struggle. While not held in bondage, former slaves were far from sharing the freedoms of white Americans. They were often forced into indentured servitude, like Lucy and Tipp were, as I discovered in an article entitled “Not Free Yet” on PBS.org. Former masters often threatened their former slaves with violence or prison time, going so far as to have them convicted of “crimes” so they would have to work in order to keep from being locked up or paying huge fines. Sometimes they took advantage of their former slaves’ illiteracy, promising fair wages and land if they would simply sign their X on the dotted line. In the tumultuous, war-torn South, one couldn’t blame these freed men and women for agreeing to remain under contract in exchange for what they hoped was a better situation. Striking out on their own could be deadly in a society that hated and resented them. But once bound by contract, they soon realized they were no better off than before.
Former slaves weren’t the only ones who had to rebuild their lives around tremendous obstacles after the war. Veterans like Beau and Harry came home to dead loved ones and plundered properties. If they were lucky enough to not have lost a limb, they could still work, but the South’s economy had bottomed out. Keeping the land they once called home sometimes wasn’t possible. Wounded men were also more likely to come home addicted to morphine. Some historians argue about the numbers of addicts created by the war, (The Straight Dope.com) but considering how army doctors at the time used opiates to treat everything from wounds to diarrhea, it’s probable that a great many soldiers became dependent on morphine. Opiates were also widely used in civilian life. Many high-bred ladies kept a bottle of laudanum in their medicine cabinets to combat menstrual cramps, headaches, and even to achieve the pale complexions that were fashionable in the day, as we can see in Polly’s example.
Our story didn’t rely solely on characters with addictions and wounds. A few straight-laced, actual historical figures made special appearances to guide our characters along and balance things out a bit. One in particular was an Irish minister named Joseph McGee. His story intrigued me enough to make him instrumental in helping Beau with Lucy and Tipp’s escape to freedom. This young, determined man survived bouts of illness, a swordfight (which he won), homelessness, and angry mobs to start a mission for fugitive slaves in Nashville in 1863 and later founded a school for freed slaves. He died a young man of 36, disappointed that his efforts were overshadowed with better-funded schools such as Fisk University. But it was McKee’s efforts that helped pave the way for freed slaves in middle Tennessee to receive the education they so rightly deserved. His inclusion as a fundamental character in this story is partly a way to honor his forgotten contributions.
Many more facts and events went into the making of this book, but they are too numerous to list here. Visit my website at www.mystiparker.com for additional information.
About the Author
Mysti Parker is a wife, mother, and shameless chocoholic. While her first love is romance, including two series and an award-winning historical, she enjoys writing flash fiction (the weirder the better) and children's stories. When she’s not writing, Mysti works as a freelance editor, serves as a mentor in a 7-week writing course (F2K), and reviews books for SQ Mag, an online speculative fiction magazine. She resides in Buckner, KY with her husband, three children and too many pets.
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