Tag Archives: Civil War

by | March 13, 2008 · 9:58 am

William R. Trotter. “Pride” Civil War Novels.

In these two novels, Trotter dramatizes many of the important events and individuals in coastal North Carolina during the Civil War. The Sands of Pride is set in Wilmington during 1861 to 1863 when the port city was the center of Confederate blockade-running efforts. The Fires of Pride continues the story through the end of the war, with a long section on the Union assault on Fort Fisher. Trotter is able to trace several narratives throughout the chaos of battle, with many of his characters based on actual people. Trotter is also the author of a multi-volume history of the Civil War in North Carolina, and can be counted in these novels to provide accurate depictions of events, and careful attention to historic detail.

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Filed under Coast, Historical, New Hanover, Novels in Series, Series, Trotter, William R.

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by | · 9:58 am

Sharyn McCrumb. Ghost Riders. New York: Dutton, 2003.

Set primarily in the North Carolina mountains, Ghost Riders tells three distinct stories. The interwoven tales involve Rattler, a current-day recluse and eccentric who socializes with Civil War re-enactors; Zebulon Vance, the Governor of North Carolina during the Civil War; and Malinda and Keith Blaylock, a married couple who join the Confederate army under Vance. Mixing past and present, McCrumb examines the Civil War and its legacy in the mountains of North Carolina.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, McCrumb, Sharyn, Mountains

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by | · 9:58 am

Josephine Humphreys. Nowhere Else on Earth. New York: Viking, 2000.

Set in Robeson County in the final days of the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Rhoda Lawson tells the story of the last desperate struggle to resist the Union Army. General William Tecumseh Sherman’s army was on its way, and the local Home Guard was rounding up everyone they could for the fight. The local Lumbee Indians, however, wanted no part in a war whose aims they had opposed. When Henry Berry Lowrie comes to help Rhoda’s brothers hide from the Home Guard, she falls in love with him, and leaves to live with the outlaws. Lowrie is an actual historical figure, and the events of this novel are based in part on his life.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000, 2000-2009, Coastal Plain, Historical, Humphreys, Josephine, Robeson

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by | · 9:58 am

Allan Gurganus. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. New York: Knopf, 1989.

Ninety-nine year old Lucy Marsden spins an epic tale that covers the Civil War, slavery, marriage, and death. With an energetic and humorous style, she tells the story of her remarkable life. Married at fifteen to a Confederate veteran thirty-five years her senior, Lucy has survived long enough to be the oldest living Confederate widow. The novel alternates between past and present, telling the story of Captain Marsden’s experiences in the war, Lucy’s childhood, her close friendship with a former slave, and her life at present, where she is living in a nursing home in fictional Falls, N.C., a town in the eastern part of the state probably based on the author’s hometown of Rocky Mount.  The book was made into a movie/miniseries in 1994.

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All won the 1990 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1980-1989, 1989, Gurganus, Allan, Historical, Novels Set in Fictional Places

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by | · 9:58 am

Charles Frazier. Cold Mountain. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997.

Cold Mountain is the story of Inman, a deserter from the Confederate Army, and his long journey home to the mountains of North Carolina during the last year of the Civil War. The novel alternates between Inman’s struggles and those of Ada, who is at home near Cold Mountain and is able to get by only with the help of Ruby, a mountain woman unafraid to fend for herself. Cold Mountain, winner of the National Book Award in 1997, has been praised for its accuracy in portraying geographical and horticultural details, as well as the particulars of nineteenth-century life in the North Carolina mountains. The book also inspired the 2003 Oscar-winning film of the same name.

Cold Mountain won the 1997 Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library Catalog.

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Filed under 1990-1999, 1997, Frazier, Charles, Haywood, Historical, Mountains

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by | · 9:58 am

Sheila Kay Adams. My Old True Love. Chapel Hill: Algonquin, 2004.

Narrator Arty Norton looks back on her rough life in the North Carolina mountains in the mid nineteenth- century. Set in the mountain community of Sodom, N.C., Arty focuses on the years leading up to the Civil War, when her brother Hackley and their orphaned cousin Larkin are growing up. The two boys fall in love with the same girl, but romance is quickly pushed aside when the war begins. Adams, a successful folk singer, accentuates the story with passages from old mountain ballads.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library Catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2004, Adams, Shelia Kay, Historical, Mountains, Novels Set in Fictional Places

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