ENLIST OR ELSE!

I’m late posting today. Somewhere, I lost a day due to a hectic, crazy weekend and week. Now I realize it’s Wednesday.


Nancy (nee Wood) and
William Harrison Johnson
circa 1885
What is going on
with her hair?

 Commemorating the start of the Civil War still, today I want to post about an ancestor who fought in the war. He didn’t want to. This man, William Harrison Johnson, believed he should mind his own business and take care of his farm and family. He truly believed he could get away with taking care of his own and letting everyone else do the same. Nope, didn’t work.

A distant relative, a villainous man who shall remain nameless here, confronted Johnson and told him that if he did not enlist in the Confederacy, his farm would be burned, his wife and daughters raped and killed, and his sons would be killed. Johnson knew this man meant it, because he had the reputation to back up the claim. The relative was one mean sonofagun! But that’s another story - an interesting but long one I'll save for another time or for a book.

Thomas Vestal Johnson

William Harrison Johnson and his sons William Riley and Thomas Vestal enlisted. Riley went to a neighboring town with friends, but Thomas (who was barely sixteen) enlisted with his father in the Sardis Volunteers. Early into the war, William and Thomas were separated. William served in Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Battle of Chicamauga, GA. He was hospitalized in Atlanta. When Sherman approached Atlanta, William hurried to move his parents and sister Caroline away from the city to Northwest Georgia where he lived. Definitely not heroic--unless you were an elderly couple or the daughter caring for them. William lived until 1899 and is buried in Rome, Georgia.

Thomas continued to do what he saw as his duty. Among the battles in which he fought were Gettysburg and the Second Battle of Manassas. Once the war was over, he vowed never to fire another gun. He married Sarah Bailey and they had a son. After only a few years, Sarah died of childbed fever. Luckily for me, Thomas remarried. Eleven years after the end of the Civil War, Thomas and his brother James came to Texas. James went back to Georgia, but Thomas and his new wife and baby remained near Waco.

This 150th anniversary has many engaging in heated and serious debates about the justification and causes of the Civil War. Not me. For good or ill, it’s a part of our history but we don’t want to repeat it. Regardless of the pros and cons, we need to study it to protect our peace and our freedom.

“Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it.”

from The Wild Rose Press

My story, LONG WAY HOME, in the Civil War anthology NORTHERN ROSES AND SOUTHERN BELLES is very loosely based on my family in Northwest Georgia and is the only non-Texas setting I’ve ever used. I fictionalized Rome, Georgia, but I remember visiting the town. Lovely setting and probably a nice place in which to live.

Friday, I’ll write about another aspect of the Civil War.

Thanks for stopping by.

SUSAN MACATEE DECLARES WAR! OH, IT WAS 150 YEARS AGO

Abraham Lincoln
November 1863

This is the official 150th anniversary of the launch of the Civil War, so I stuck Abraham Lincoln's photo here. When my younger brother Don was a boy, he loved anything about Abraham Lincoln--probably still does. Don used to call "Onward Christian Soldiers" the "Abraham Lincoln song" because it seemed always to accompany documentaries about Lincoln. That has nothing to do with today's guest, but I think it's cute. Humor me, please. This is my baby brother we're talking about.

Today's guest is Susan Macatee, a friend who has long been interested in writing, but didn't make it official until her youngest started kindergarten. Since then, Susan has been successful as a novelist. She also writes for the confession magazines, known among writers as "the Trues." You didn't think those were actually true, did you? If you did, I'm so sorry to burst your bubble.

Don't miss the part about prizes at the end.

Here's Susan's post:

           WAR IS DECLARED!

Beauregard

2011 is the 150 year anniversary of the start of the American Civil War. It all began at Fort Sumter, in Charleston, South Carolina harbor on April 11, 1861. A surrender of the fort was requested by Confederate Brigadier General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, but Federal commander, Major Robert Anderson, refused. The first shot of the American Civil War was fired from a Confederate artillery battery at 4:30 a.m. April 12, 1861. After artillery exchanges that continued through April 13th, the fort was evacuated on April 14th.   Following this, Lincoln issued a proclamation that called for 75,000 militia for ninety days’ service, to put down “combinations too powerful to be suppressed”. The American Civil War had officially begun!

Susan and her husband at a Civil
War reenactment in Nishaminy
State Park, Pennsylvania.
Don't they make a handsome couple?

This is an important anniversary that should spark a lot of interest in the war between the States. Events are planned all over the country, including battle reenactments, seminars, symposiums and lectures. New movies set during and after the war are being developed as well. Books and other Civil War paraphernalia should be in demand, also.

I currently have five books, four in print and e-book, one only available as an e-book, all available from The Wild Rose Press. The buy link for my books at The Wild Rose Press is: http://tinyurl.com/3egf4ex

My award winning novel, CONFEDERATE ROSE, is the story of an Irish immigrant heroine, who disguises herself as a man and fights in the Confederate army. She meets a charming Southerner, she later learns in a Federal spy.


ERIN'S REBEL is a time travel romance. The heroine travels from present day to land in Confederate army camp. She meets a Rebel officer who steals her heart away.

My other three Civil War romances are novellas. Two are included in anthologies: one in the 2011 EPIC finalist, NORTHERN ROSES AND SOUTHERN BELLES, the other in the historical Christmas anthology, AN AMERICAN ROSE CHRISTMAS.

The third is a stand alone novella, available as an e-book, my Civil War vampire story, SWEET REDEMPTION. To learn more about me and all of my books, visit my website, www.susanmacatee.com

I hope this will be an exciting year for everything Civil War, as well as the next four years that will follow the war years from 1861 to 1865.

For more on the start of the American Civil War, visit this site. www.civilwarhome.com/ovbegin.htm



2011 EPIC Finalist


Thanks to Susan for sharing with us. By the way, her books have won multiple awards and received rave reviews.

On Wednesday and on Friday, I'll relate  stories about a few of my ancestors who fought in the Civil War. Yep, we were on the wrong side, but you might be interested to learn why. Sure you will.

PRIZES, PRIZES, PRIZES!


Since all week we'll be talking about the Civil War, someone who leaves a comment on this blog during this week will win a download of NORTHERN ROSES AND SOUTHERN BELLES (or one of my other Caroline Clemmons books if the winner is not a Civil War fan) to celebrate the anniversary of the Civil War. Although, I have no idea why anyone would call it "civil war." Yes, yes, I understand the definition, but it still seems an oxymoron.