10 Best Novels About the Civil War

[L Verge]

(06-04-2014 12:23 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I agree with Betty and Linda as far as Last Confederate Heroes belonging on that list - and Andersonville (though it has been many, many moons since I read it).

I read and thoroughly enjoyed #9, Widow of the South, which is based on a true story.

I have more time today to elaborate on this novel based on history. Google "Carnton Plantation" for full details, but the story is based around the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, in the fall of 1864, one of the bloodiest battles of the war. The Plantation was very near the action, and the home became a field hospital. When the house couldn't hold any more patients, they were sent all around the grounds.

At one point there were four dead Confederate generals laid out at the same time on the home's back porch. The house is open to tours today, and you can still see the blood stains on the floors where surgeons conducted amputations and other surgeries. Supposedly, the stack of discarded limbs that were thrown outside was taller than the smokehouse.

After the battle, the owners - John and Carrie McGavock - arranged for the burial of about 1500 of the Confederate dead on several acres adjacent to the family's burial ground. Carrie marked and maintained those graves until her death years later. They were her boys - hence she became the Widow of the South.

I first learned of this story and book from one of the volunteers at Surratt House who is writing a book on the Battle of Franklin. The plantation remained in the McGavock family until the widow of their son sold it in the 20th century. It is now operated by a trust in connection with the battlefield.

BTW: The burial acreage for those Civil War dead represents the largest, privately owned, military cemetery in the U.S.