The Velvet Shadow (58 page)

T
he tragedy of the American Civil War has not been forgotten, nor should it be, for more than 130 years later we are still influenced by the powerful feelings that instigated this conflict. As I researched this period of history, I discovered that my own great-great-great-grandfather, John M. Johnston, joined the Confederate army in 1862 and was among the starving soldiers who surrendered with Lee in 1865. It is impossible to write about these men without feeling a surge of loyalty and affection toward them.

Could a woman really disguise herself and enlist in a Civil War army? Of course, and over four hundred actually did. Motivated by patriotism, bounty money, a love of adventure, or the desire to remain beside their husbands and brothers, they left the traditional roles of womanhood behind and went off to battle. One soldier from a Massachusetts regiment wrote his family: “There was an orderly in one of our regiments and he and the Corporal always slept together. Well, the other night the Corporal had a baby, for the Corporal turned out to be a woman! She has been in three or four fights”
(An Uncommon Soldier
, p. xii).

There is an abundance of material available on the Civil War, and I, unfortunately, could not pursue an exhaustive study. I have, however, taken pains not to contradict the actual facts regarding the battles at Ball’s Bluff, Fair Oaks, and Antietam. And while I am certain there was a Twenty-fifth Massachusetts regiment, Alden’s Twenty-fifth Massachusetts and its officers are fictional. All other references to specific regiments and commanders are taken from the historical record.

I am extremely grateful for the wealth of information compiled by various authors and experts on the Civil War. Many of the quotes
that spill from my characters’ lips were actually voiced by men and women who lived during the American Civil War, and I must give credit to the fine authors whose books enabled me to explore these tragic years of our nation’s history.

Bergren, Philip.
Old Boston in Early Photographs, 1850-1918
. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1990.

Brooke, Elisabeth.
Medicine Women: A Pictorial History of Women Healers
. Wheaton, Ill.: Quest Books, 1997.

Burgess, Lauren Cook, ed.
An Uncommon Soldier
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Colbert, David, ed.
Eyewitness to America: 500 Years of America in the Words of Those Who Saw It Happen
. New York: Pantheon Books, 1997.

Davis, Kenneth C.
Don’t Know Much About the Civil War
. New York: Avon Books, 1996.

Davis, William C., ed.
Touched by Fire: A National Historical Society Photographic Portrait of the Civil War
. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 1997.

Fishel, Edwin C.
The Secret War for the Union
. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

Fraser, Walter J.
Charleston! Charleston! The History of a Southern City
. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1991.

Hall, Richard.
Patriots in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War
. New York: Marlowe & Company, 1994.

Johnson, Robert Underwood, and Clarence Clough Buel, eds.
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War
. 2 vols. Edison, N. J.: Castle, 1887.

Marcus, Robert D., and David Burner.
From Settlement to Reconstruction
. Vol. 1 of
America Firsthand
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.

Massey, Mary Elizabeth.
Women in the Civil War
. Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.

McCutcheon, Marc.
Everyday Life in the 1800s
. Cincinnati: Writers Digest Books, 1993.

Schwartz, Gerald, ed.
A Woman Doctor’s Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks’ Diary
. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1986.

Ward, Geoffrey C.
The Civil War
. New York: Knopf, 1990.

Wiley, Bell I.
The Life of Johnny Reb
and
The Life of Billy Yank
. New York: Book of the Month Club, 1994.

Woodward, C. Vann, ed.
Mary Chesnut’s Civil War
. New York: Book of the Month Club, 1994.

T
HE
V
ELVET
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HADOW
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UBLISHED
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Y
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Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the
King James Version
of the Bible.

Some of the characters and events in this book are fictional, some historical. For further information on the historical basis of the book.

Copyright © 1999 by Angela Elwell Hunt

Rosetta Wakeman’s letter on page viii was taken from Lauren Cook Burgess’s
An Uncommon Soldier
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of The Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.

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2009

eISBN: 978-0-307-55349-2

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