Homeland (36 page)
Authors: Barbara Hambly
In March of ‘66 I realized, that if
Julia
were our father’s son, rather than a woman, not a man nor woman of my acquaintance would consider it right, for him (Julia) to keep his (her) family starving and in rags, only out of refusal to take help that was offered by those whose politics he (she) didn’t approve. Does that make sense? It was
Julia’s
choice, to stay on Bayberry—to live in the world of the past. She was not helpless. There were other choices she could make. And if you could walk on, and take your right place in the new-born world, and leave the past behind, then so, too, could I.
I send her money—I work as a copyist for law firms, to pay for my paints. She sends it back, so I know she’s still on Bayberry, and can at least afford a postage stamp. Never,
ever
did I think, that she would write to you after I left, and tell you I was dead. I should have, though. It sounds just like her. I am so sorry, for the grief this caused you, on top of your other many griefs.
It is so good—
so
good!
—to see your handwriting before me, the ink fresh and not faded almost to nothingness, like all those yellowed letters in my box. I have the five letters Justin sent me, as well—does he know? If not, please don’t tell him of me, til I’ve spoken to you. He hasn’t
married
anybody, or anything, has he? (I haven’t.)
Do you know the coffee-stand at the Porte Maillot, where the road goes into the Bois de Boulogne? Can you meet me there tomorrow (Friday) at four? I’ll be wearing a straw hat and carrying a sketch-book—here’s a picture of me.
And don’t get run over by a carriage on the way, which is what
would happen to one or the other of us if Mr. Dickens were writing this story.
I realize, I have no idea what you look like, anymore—I haven’t seen you since April of 1861! Carry a copy of
Pride and Prejudice
, so I’ll know it’s you.
Love,
Susie
[sketch]
Over the course of the two-years-plus during which I worked on
Homeland
, I lost count of how many sources I used: letters, newspapers, books on everything from soap-making to the history of slang, journeys through Appalachia and Maine and to Vicksburg and Washington, DC.
A few of my most hard-used sources were:
Andrew Johnson, A Biography
by Hans Trefousse;
The Civil War Day by Day
by E. B. Long; Noel C. Fisher’s
War at Every Door;
Vernal Hutchinson’s
A Maine Town in the Civil War; My Cave Life in Vicksburg
by A. Lady (actually Mary Webster Loughborough); and
Fighting Words
by Andrew Coopersmith. There were too many others to name or count, and Web sites beyond computation, for my intention was not simply to write about the Civil War, but to put myself—if I could—into the hearts, corsets, and shoes of two women who were out of step with the accepted views of those around them.
And there were many such. Despite torrents of propaganda on both sides, the Civil War was fiercely unpopular in the North, and the South was far from united about the decision of the various State governments to separate from the Union—a split particularly virulent in the eastern part of Tennessee. Little is written about these dissenters, and less still is taught in most college survey courses, let alone at lower levels. Men deserted, and dodged the draft, in droves; partisan fighting continued in Tennessee for months after Appomatox; in the North, as one Maine man recalled, “You had to be awful careful what you said.”
It was a time of courage and sacrifice, but it was also a time of great turmoil, when men and women, North and South, strove to
grapple with questions that had no good answers: human rights and national security, loyalty, survival, and the freedom to choose.
“The Volunteer’s Wife to Her Husband,” an early Civil War poem, quoted on pg. 95. Quoted in Nina Silber,
Daughters of the Union: Northern Women Fight the Civil War
, Harvard University Press, 2005; pg 18.
BARBARA HAMBLY attended the University of California and spent a year at the University of Bordeaux obtaining a master’s degree in medieval history. She has worked as both a teacher and a technical editor, but her first love has always been history. Barbara Hambly is the author of
Patriot Hearts, The Emancipator’s Wife, A Free Man of Color, Fever Season, Graveyard Dust, Wet Grave, Sold Down the River, Die Upon a Kiss, Days of the Dead
, and
Dead Water
.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events,
or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by Barbara Hambly
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Bantam Books,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
B
ANTAM
B
OOKS
and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks
of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hambly, Barbara.
Homeland / Barbara Hambly.
eISBN: 978-0-553-90687-5
1. Female friendship—Fiction. 2. United States—History—Civil War,
1861–1865—Social aspects—Fiction. 3. United States—History—Civil
War, 1861-1865—Psychological aspects—Fiction. 4. United States—
History—Civil War, 1861-1865—Women—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3558.A4215 H66 2009
813/.54—dc22
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