I Shall Be Near to You (37 page)

Stone, Ross

Wakefield, Jeremiah

WOUNDED

Cameron, Sullivan

Winship, Silas

MISSING

Bile, Andrew

Holeyhen, Ephraim

Keller, Milo

August 21, 1862

My Dear Wife, Rosetta, Always Rosetta
,

I can see us even now sitting on our Porch, Old and Weathered together and that is how I know we will have Our Farm. Maybe I will read this letter to our Children, to teach them something of their Mother, my Fighting Wife, my Stone Lady. Or maybe I will keep it until we are in our Last Days and show you then. Or some day when you are fussing at some fool thing I done. And you will see these words and know that even in my Dark Hours you are First in my thoughts
.

It is my Hope that I can Provide for you and Protect you. That is what I aimed to do when I left Home and you there. You know I never meant for you to come here and that is why I want you to go back if anything should happen though I cannot believe I will die in this War
.

I want for us to have everything we ever dreamed and spoke of. You belong on that Farm and me There with you. I am Grateful for Every Moment we stole, for Every Bit of Time Together we ever had, but if there is one thing I wish it is for more Years to Love you and be a better husband to you
.

I don’t regret not for one day the things we done together or having you by my side but that I put you in Harm’s Way by being here. Even more than our Farm, I want for you to have a Long and Happy Life. If it is not God’s Will for us to share this life more than we already done, when I am gone you should go Home and be Safe. I will wait for you in Heaven and Look on you and see the Life you make and be happy for it
.

I Shall be Near to You, Always
,

Your Husband
,

Jeremiah Wakefield

AUTHOR’S NOTE

There was a real Rosetta who fought in the Civil War, though not in the 97th New York State Volunteers. That regiment did, however, see action at the battles of Second Manassas, South Mountain, and Antietam, all battles at which women soldiers disguised as men are known to have participated, including one woman who fought at Antietam during the second trimester of her pregnancy. And though this novel focuses on the Union side, there were women who fought for the Confederacy as well.

Studying the photograph of her in uniform, it is hard to imagine the real Rosetta, Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, as anything other than a soldier. As a private in the 153rd New York State Volunteers, she performed guard duty at Old Capitol and Carroll Prisons where she guarded two female Rebel spies and a Major in the Union Army who was discovered to be a woman. She saw combat during the Red River campaign in Spring 1864, contracted dysentery, and died on June 19, 1864. Buried as Lyons Wakeman in New Orleans, her true identity remained a secret until her family came forward with her letters, which were published in Lauren Cook Burgess’s
An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd New York State Volunteers, 1862–1864
.

The fictional Rosetta is greatly informed by the feisty and strong-willed voice that shines through Wakeman’s letters home. The questions her
letters raised and yet never answered were the seed for this novel: How did Rosetta conceal her identity for so long? What did her family think of what she had done? What was she apologizing for in her letters home? Why did she get into a fistfight with a fellow soldier? What was it like, being a woman hidden among men? How did she feel guarding women imprisoned for what she herself was doing? Did she tell anyone her real identity? This book is my attempt to imagine the answers to those questions.

Though my primary inspiration was Rosetta Wakeman, Sarah Emma Edmonds’s
Memoirs of a Soldier, Nurse and Spy: A Woman’s Adventures in the Union Army
, provided a valuable firsthand look at the experiences of a woman in the ranks, as did the story of Jennie Hodgers, who after the war lived as a man for most of her life. Indeed, the fictional Rosetta’s experience as a soldier is an amalgamation of the experiences of the more than two hundred women who are known to have enlisted, and whose record of service is much more thoroughly catalogued and articulated in Deanne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook’s
They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War
. Just as the fictional Rosetta followed Jeremiah into the Army, many women joined up to be with fiancés, husbands, brothers, fathers. Not only did these women manage to pass the Army’s physical exam (often just a handshake), some of these women even managed to conceal their identity until the very moment they delivered their babies in the ranks, a fact that seems unthinkable to us now, but perhaps is more understandable during a time when seeing a woman in pants was a rarity and gender roles were more strictly delineated.

Women served their country in various capacities, not only on the home front but also as spies, nurses, doctors, sutlers, “Daughters of the Regiment,” laundresses, and prostitutes. Mrs. Rose O’Neal Greenhow (aka Rebel Rose) was in fact incarcerated for being a Confederate spy at the Old Capitol Prison until May 31, 1862, and Clara Barton did indeed serve as a battlefield nurse at Antietam until she collapsed of exhaustion, but they and other historical figures who appear in the novel are entirely fictional creations. All names, characters, places, dates, and geographical descriptions are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

I have attempted to render life during this time period and soldiers’ experiences of battle as accurately as possible, consulting soldiers’ and civilians’ letters for details, especially those collected in Robert E. Bonner’s
The Soldier’s Pen: Firsthand Impressions of the Civil War
and Emmy E. Werner’s
Reluctant Witnesses: Children’s Voices from the Civil War
. Other works that were extremely useful were William P. Craighill’s
The 1862 Army Officer’s Handbook
and Howard S. Russell’s
A Long Deep Furrow: Three Centuries of Farming in New England
. I also strived to portray the movements of the 97th New York State Volunteers faithfully, relying on John J. Hennessy’s
Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas
, Stephen W. Sears’s
Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam
, Vincent J. Esposito’s
The West Point Atlas of War: The Civil War
, and my own experience marching the ground Rosetta would have covered as a member of that regiment at both Bull Run and Antietam. I pored over the many battlefield photographs taken by Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and also the more current ones in William Fassanito’s
Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America’s Bloodiest Day
. That said, in many places the activities and surroundings of the 97th New York State Volunteers have been condensed, combined, or created out of whole cloth, all in service to the story.

Which is to say, though inspired by real people and events, this book is entirely a work of fiction.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Love and gratitude to my family, who supported this endeavor in every possible way. Doug, who dared this novel into being and has been wholeheartedly devoted from the very first. My parents, Neil and Sue McCabe, for reading to me, teaching me to value words, and being my first readers and editors. Matt and Kristy McCabe for their faith and enthusiasm. The Jastrows, Korpis, and Spragues for their encouragement. The Lindsays for teaching me to play poker and allowing me to step back in time at Tehama.

For their steadfast friendship and reassurance: Mariah DeNijs, Ali Kelly, and Michelle Nye. Michelle, too, for her perspective on the creative process and for telling me that sometimes what’s important is just the doing; your words kept me going many times. Chris DeNijs for the line “punch and don’t get punched.”

I am indebted to the community of writers who have inspired, supported, and enriched my work. M. Allen and Katie Cunningham for showing it was possible. The Jaguar Fiction Collective: Steve Dershimer, Matthew Cunningham (what you told me about fighting should be a story in its own right), and Andrea Kneeland for the courage and fortification I needed, especially at the beginning—RAWR! The Fictionistas: Mikaela Cowles, Rosa Del Duca, Analisa Falcon, Kevin O’Neill, Skye Price, Isaac
Smith, Toby Wendtland (who spurred me on in our race to ninety thousand words)—there are traces of your insight throughout this book. The Saint Mary’s College of California creative writing faculty, notably Marilyn Abildskov and Rosemary Graham, for their unparalleled warmth, generosity, and perception; your confidence made all the difference.

I am grateful to my first editor, Sarah Rainone, who helped immensely to shape this novel. To my brilliant agent, Dan Lazar, who believed and kept believing, and always impresses with his dedication, energy, and keen judgment. To Christine Kopprasch for championing Rosetta and Jeremiah, honing their story with such care, crying at all the right spots, and shepherding it into the world with kindness and conviction.

I owe much to the historians upon whose knowledge I relied and research I consulted. Lauren Cook Burgess, for bringing the real Rosetta’s letters to light, and for her work, along with DeAnn Blanton, to find the other women who fought. Ted Alexander, historian at Antietam National Battlefield, for answering my questions about the days after the battle. The re-enactors at Civil War Days in Duncan Mills, California, most especially the members of the California Historical Artillery Society, for answering my questions about artillery, caissons, and horses. While I have strived to be faithful to the history, any inaccuracies in or inadequacies of this novel are entirely my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

E
RIN
L
INDSAY
M
C
C
ABE
studied literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and earned a teaching credential at California State University, Chico. After working as a high school English teacher for seven years, she completed her MFA at Saint Mary’s College of California in 2010. She has taught composition at Saint Mary’s and Butte College and resides in Northern California with her husband and son and a small menagerie that includes one dog, four cats, two horses, ten chickens, and three goats.