By Antonio Elmaleh
Harriman Hickenlooper, a veteran of the 6th Iowa Infantry,
came back from what some would call “The War of the Rebellion” and what others later
would call the “War Between the States” with an unkept promise, a score to
settle and a debt to repay. His parents
who had taken out a mortgage on the family farm had both died during the war;
his brother Alonzo would also die in the war in Harriman’s arms. It has been two years since Harriman had
returned home. The Appanoose County
farmer was heavily in debt, behind on the mortgage payments and struggling to
keep up the family farm all on his own.
Walter Ridley, formerly the Colonel of the 6th Iowa Infantry
and now after the war was on the board of directors of the “Farmer’s and
Merchant’s Bank,” Centerville, Iowa’s only bank, which held the note on the
Hickenlooper farm. In a move to avoid
the embarrassment to bank foreclosing on one of Appanoose County’s war veterans,
Ridley, bought the loan from the bank.
At a meeting of Centerville’s veterans, Harriman proposes a
bet between he and Colonel Ridley; that Harriman could walk from Atlanta to
Savannah, following the path taken by the 6th Iowa during William T. Sherman’s
March to the Sea, unarmed, while carrying a United States flag, and return to
Centerville unharmed by January 1, 1868 (giving Harriman 44 to complete the
fete) with tangible proof of his journey.
If he makes it back by New Year’s Day he will get his farm free and
clear, if he doesn’t Ridley will get the farm.
Seventeen year old Rufus Dewes, a young man wanting
desperately to become a newspaper reporter, instantly senses Harriman’s journey
would make a great story, and convinces Harriman to let him tag along on the
journey. Rufus periodically sends back
dispatches to Jack Connolly, editor of Centerville’s newspaper, The Loyal Citizen, in which they are
published. The articles are quickly
picked up by other newspapers across the country, and Harriman’s journey
becomes a nationwide sensation as people clamor for details and wonder whether
or not he will make it back in time, or even make it back at all.
Along the their journey Harriman and Rufus are joined by a
former slave named Jed, emancipated in name only, until the timely arrival of
the Northerners, and Lucinda McWhorter, a young Georgia woman left destitute by
the misfortunes of war. Will the quartet
make it alive to Savannah? And if they
do will Harriman make it back to Centerville in time to save his farm? And who are “The Ones They Left Behind?” You will have to read the book to find out
for yourself.
Iowa and family connections added to my experience of
reading this book. Being a native of south-central
Iowa, I was greatly surprised to pick up Mr. Elmaleh’s book, and realize it was
partially set in Centerville, a real town in Iowa, and county seat of Appanoose
County. My great Grandmother, Mary Alice
Byrd Luce, is buried in Jerome, a small town just a few miles west of
Centerville, so I am familiar with the area.
Centerville and the 6th Iowa Infantry are the only real things in this
book; the bank, the newspaper, the townspeople, and the members of the 6th Iowa
Infantry are all fictional creations of the author. My father’s uncle, Lowell Miller, a medic
during the Korean War, was killed in action and died in his brother’s arms, which
reflected the story of Harriman and Alonzo, and gave to me an extra sense of poignancy
to the story. And further my great great
grandfather’s name was Alonzo Luce, and three of his brothers served in the
Union Army during the Civil War, all of them, however were in different units
and did not serve together. I also have several other relatives who participated in the march to Savannah.
Mr. Elmaleh states he based his novel on a newspaper article
about a real Civil War Veteran who retraced Sherman’s route from Atlanta to
Savannah, but he does not reveal any details of the actual historical event. “The Ones They Left Behind” is well written
and engaging. It is a quickly read page
turner that I found myself unable to put down.
ISBN 978-0990640622, 21 Cent Imprints Llc, © 2014,
Hardcover, 260 pages, $19.95. To purchase click HERE.
1 comment:
Thank you so much for your very kind review. I hope you don't mind a response from the author, but you mentioned the real life inspiration for the story.
In the book's acknowledgements, I thank Gilbert Bates, who indeed made a bet he could carry a Union flag across the South during Reconstruction and not be harmed. Mark Twain, reporting on the march for the Territorial Enterprise, wrote that Bates would encounter people "likely to take his scalp." However, Bates met with nothing but hospitality - although his story is very different to the journey undertaken by Harriman in my novel.
Thank you so much again for reading and reviewing THE ONES THEY LEFT BEHIND.
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