Author: James S. Kelly
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Pages: 432
Genre: Historical Fiction/Civil War Love Story
BOOK BLURB:
Two young men grow up in the south, become great friends and
love the same woman. One moves north as the civil war nears and becomes
Administrative Asst to Abraham Lincoln The one who remained in the south
vacates his office of US Senator to become the south’s chief spy. Both men are
pitted against each other during the war. As the war ends, they try to renew
their friendship but will the presence of the one they both love be an
impediment.
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As soon as the seven southern
states seceded from the union, their sons and relatives in the Union Army and
Navy resigned their commissions and became the elite officers of the
Confederacy. They were euphoric; they threw parties and prided themselves on
their great fortune. They didn’t’[t stop there; they became aggressive. The
state of South Carolina, one of
the first to secede, claimed that Forts Moultrie and Sumter in the Charleston
Harbor belonged to the Confederacy;
therefore, the Union Soldiers in the fort must vacate. General PGT Beauregard,
the former Superintendent of Cadets at West Point, who
immediately switched sides, was in
charge of that state’s militia, but was taking his orders from Jefferson Davis
in Montgomery, the interim Capitol
of the Confederacy. Whether Jefferson Davis’ request to Lincoln
to turn over the forts was rejected because it lacked merit or Lincoln
took too long to respond, is mute in the long run.
The
firing on Fort Sumter
on April 12, 1861 began a
war that had no reason to happen. It was as though a disagreement between
father and son had escalated way beyond what either wanted. At some point, each
realized that they had gone beyond the normal barrier of good behavior and
tried to step back and assess their actions. The father made every effort to
try to explain to his son why his actions were unacceptable, but a sense of
freedom to do as he wished, made that view almost impossible for the son to
accept. He and his friends were caught up in a wave of excitement, which
escalated into a cause. The normal civility between father and son was met with
obstinacy and imprudence. Consequently, neither could see how to rectify a
situation that continued to fester and finally got out of control. There seemed
to be no common ground, no mediation and no chance for reconciliation. Just
like a family, a nation was splitting apart.
So
too, did the distance between two childhood friends from Charleston, South
Carolina, widen even though in the early stages, they tried to maintain a sense
of decorum and respect, ignoring all outside influences. But it was not to be.
The tension had grown from anxiety to acceptance, on both sides; their views
were incompatible.
On
that fateful day, James Stephen Harris and his wife Claire were sitting at the
dining room table in their rented Georgetown Residence in Washington
DC. The lights on the black wrought iron
lamps on their porch illuminated their entrance steps and their beautiful white
slump stone exterior.. They were hosting four of their closest friends to
celebrate Claire’s thirtieth birthday. Her mother and step-father planned to
attend, but the situation was such that they wanted to see what would happen
next before they crossed the Atlantic to be with the one
they raised.
James
had spent the busiest two weeks of his life getting acclimated to his new
position as Special Advisor to the newly elected President of the United
States, Abraham Lincoln. All six friends
looked solemn; the neighborhood outside was quiet; it was as though an honored
member of their family had died. No one spoke of the situation; no one wanted
to. They talked of trivial things until ten that evening and then the guests
left.
Several
hundred miles to the south in their home outside Charleston,
South Carolina, John William Beauregard,
with his wife Louisa and their two children were celebrating the same occasion
with champagne at their magnificent plantation, called Magnolia. He’d resigned
from the US Senate, as soon as the State of South
Carolina seceded from the union. Interim President of
the Confederate States of America,
Jefferson Davis, with an endorsement from John’s cousin, General PGT
Beauregard, asked him to lead the Confederate Signal Corp. He was that new
nation’s chief spy.
They were embarking on an adventure and
everyone was excited. John looked over at his wife and said, “We won’t be told
what to do or how to run our lives anymore by some Union Bureaucrat in Washington.”
“Be
careful what you wish for, John.” She responded.
“I
just don’t understand the provocation. Why start something that can’t be
reversed. The forts weren’t being supplied, so why not wait. The defenders
would eventually have no recourse but to leave. Firing on the forts seemed to
force the issue.” James Beauregard, their son, who was scheduled to attend West
Point in the fall asked.
“I
wouldn’t have done it that way, but the die is cast. I believe many in our new
administration wanted to make the break as sharp and as quick as possible, so
there’d be no recourse.” His father responded
Over
the next four years, the two childhood friends, James Harris and John
Beauregard, would be rivals, as antagonistic and would use every conscious
moment during that period to assist their side in this ridiculous loss of life,
property and dignity..
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