I finished it!Last night I finished reading my 2nd book this year. (that is huge for me!) I read the Widow of the South.
It was a great book. I was getting a little worried in the middle of the book that I wouldn't finish it and was losing interest, but once I started realizing that what I was reading happened within 5 miles of my house it gave it new meaning.
It is about a southern woman, Carrie McGavock, whom opened her home as a hospital during the civil war after the battle of Franklin. The bloodiest battle of the civil war. 9,200 people were killed in 5 hours. Years after the war she realized the bodies of the war had been buried in ditches stacked on top of each other. She helped redig 1.600 of the bodies and rebury them on her plantation. She kept a book where she was able to identify 1.400 of them.
I have always loved American History and am ashamed of myself for not digging into it sooner living around so much of cival war history. I now have a list of a few places I must go to before we move.
So today, swollen jaw and all, we went to the Carnton Plantation to take a tour of the home and graveyard. As we were driving up to the house my heart was pounding, I as so excited. The above photo is the back porch of the home. After the battle of franklin 5 of the confederate generals were brought here, dead, to lay on the back porch out of respect. Inside the home we saw the blood stained wood floors where so many of them died the days after the battle.
The highlight of the book for me was when Carrie's slave, Mariah, was talking to some of the soldiers who where the last to leave the plantation before taken to the Union prisions. These were the sickest of the men who had become disfigured and lost limbs. They were talking of how they had no idea how they were going to begin their new life as injured as they were. Mariah tells them you have to be happy wherever you are and whatever you were doing. The perspective of a slave who, now that the war was over, was becoming free was teaching the soldiers how to make the most of living a life of bondage. Very touching.
It was a day I will never forget walking where the soldiers of the army had walked. Walking through the largest private graveyard of confederate soldiers, trying to teach my girls of what happened there. It is so hard to comprehend.
I look forward to our move and to take advantage of teaching myself and my girls the history of our great country.
Enjoy the photos of our visit. to learn more about the Carnton Plantation.
I have already started my new book.... yipee.
7 comments:
Congratulations on finishing another book, that's awesome. It's rather impressive that that book was your 2nd book because it was such a departure from the last book you read and because it could have been overwhelming and hard to get through. I'm so glad you stuck with it and also that you found the plantation near your house--what a cool experience. The photos are great. I'm so glad you went. What are you reading next?
I am jealous that you can make the time to read. I think I spend most of my time on the computer or cleaning up my house. I was wondering how do you link stuff to your website without posting it as www. something? I have been trying to get html saavy but can't seem to get a grip on it.
Just wait until you can dive into all that the DC area has to offer! Gettysburg is amazing and don't get me started on Philadelphia. Its amazing to stand in Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Congrats on being a bookie now! Sounds like a great day!
Tasha
What a great read. It sounds very fascinating and I have added to my list. The cool thing, you were able to actually visit the places you had read about and see the sites with your own eyes. Was it what you had invisioned? And- for such all your claims of being a nonreader, you sure picked a doosy of a 2nd book.
Congrats on taking the reading leap. I know know how much I love reading, I'm glad you are finding the same joy! Ya- what are you reading next?
How exciting that you finished your book! And how cool that you could go and see the plantation in person -- that always gives you more perspective. Can't wait to see what your next book is...
I can't believe you live close enough to Carnton to go and visit it. I would love to live that close to historical places. I loved The Widow of the South. I love any historical fiction that is well researcehd and well written--and I really felt like it was. I loved both Carrie and Mariah. They just seemed so real to me.
There's a certain sacred feeling around battlefields where so much death happens. It's like the land remembers, and a hush falls that can't be penetrated--or maybe it's just that the visitors don't want to disrupt it. A few years ago Jeremy and I drove from Nauvoo to Washington DC. We stopped at the Antitam Battlefield in North Western Maryland. It was a truly sobering experience.
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