John C. Kerr

The Civil War has been a popular subject of American fiction almost since the day the war ended, and it continues to be so today. What is not nearly so well documented by novelists is the period immediately following the war during which Southern states were abused and looted by those from the North who came south to “reconstruct” them into something approved by their northern brethren. “To the victor go the spoils, “ New York Senator William L. Macy (more or less) said in 1828, and hundreds, if not thousands, came south to make sure that exactly that happened.

(I understand that there were legitimate reasons and concerns requiring a Reconstruction period after the Civil War. I am referring here only to those who came down specifically to abuse and take advantage of a weakened, often helpless, Southern population.)

John C. Kerr’s The Silent Shore of Memory is one of those exceptional Civil War novels that do not end at the close of the war. It continues the story of its main character, Texas Confederate James Barnhill through the entire Reconstruction era as it was experienced in East Texas and ends, instead, on a 1915 Big Thicket bear hunt. Captain Barnhill’s war experiences would take an unusual turn when he was severely wounded while serving as a courier to an adjacent unit – a wound he survived only because of the intervention of a Gettysburg pastor who took Barnhill and two other wounded men (one Confederate, one Union) into his own home after the battle.

In the reverend’s home, Barnhill does more than survive his wounds; he meets the fellow Confederate soldier, Robert Maxwell, who will become perhaps the best friend he has during his entire life. When Union authorities agree to parole the two men so they can return home to complete their recoveries, Barnhill brings Maxwell back to the Virginia plantation that Maxwell calls home so that the two can recover there. It is here, too, that Barnhill will meet the love of his life, Robert Maxwell’s sister, Amelia.

This, though, is only a small part of James Barnhill’s story – and what happens next to him and to his beloved state of Texas, is every bit as colorful and intriguing as what happened to him during the war. Always one to fight with all he has for something he believes in, Barnhill returns to Texas, law degree in hand, and takes on any who try to take unfair advantage of his state and its citizens throughout the Reconstruction era.

James Barnhill’s story is a big part of part of Texas’s story, and John C. Kerr tells it well.… (més)