Blessed Are the Peacemakers"
by Joe W. Smith
 |
Blessed
Are the Peacemakers
by Joe W. Smith
Civil War in the Ozarks
Now available from Amazon.com
available from
McCleery & Sons Publishing
420 pages, trade paperback size
|
"From a distance, the fieldstone chimneys standing above
the burned cabins look like tombstones. And the remote hills and hollows
of the beautiful Ozark mountains conceal murder and mayhem. Abandoned for
a time by both armies after the battle of Pea Ridge, the beleaguered land
is swept clean by various bands of bushwhackers and guerrillas."
from the cover of
"Blessed Are the Peacemakers" |
"Blessed Are the Peacemakers"
Reviewed by D. H. Rule
Joe W. Smith, author of "Blessed Are the Peacemakers" tackles
the difficult subject of the bushwhacker war in the Ozark countryside of
Arkansas near the Missouri-Arkansas border during the Civil War. He does this in
a fiction novel with
a blending of history and legend that reaches back to the very dawn of time.
"In the beginning..." the book begins with creation itself, a
seemingly strange place to start a Civil War novel, yet as Smith draws together
the threads of geological development, and human development, in the Ozarks he
sets the stage for all later events. The first major character to whom we're
introduced is, of all things, a pack rat living in a silver-laden cave. This
lowly pack rat, and its descendents, evolve into interesting, unique characters
that keep reappearing until providing a vital role at the novel's climax.
This is only the first of the book's many, diverse characters
whose lives and histories are traced back to their distant, ancestral pasts. Not
shying away from controversial areas or characters, Smith follows the story of a
maimed Confederate soldier with a 'poor white trash' past; a Zulu youth captured
by slave traders and brought into bitterly resented slavery (historically
unlikely but the author acknowledges that and makes it work); an American Indian
who had been displaced from his Kentucky home by white settlers; slaveowners,
kind and cruel; slaves who had been broken into submission and others who strove
for freedom, some by joining the Confederates and some by joining the Unionists.
He also brings in the bushwhackers whose background could be from any side and
whose loyalties are often only to themselves, as well as the farmers—men, women,
and children—struggling to survive amidst the killing and pillaging.
In telling their individual stories, Smith creates an overall picture of the Ozark
area, its people, how it came to be as it was during the war, and beyond with
vignettes reaching into the present with descendents of many of these characters
showing in some measure the far-reaching impact of the generations distant war.
The characters, regardless of the side they were on, were
handled in a balanced, fair manner that is greatly to the author's credit. The
good guys weren't all purely good, and the bad guys were seldom purely evil.
Indeed, in keeping with the convoluted nature of war in this area, it is often
difficult to tell exactly with which side any character's sympathies lay.
Survival became the rule for most, a thing unrelated to the grand political and
social issues being fought over by the armies to the east.
The story, itself, was an interesting read that kept me up late
several nights. Though sometimes puzzled by the direction the storytelling was
taking, I always wanted to continue on to see where the author was leading me
and how some seemingly odd sections would lead into the rest of the story (such
as when the author managed to bring a centuries past Viking battle into the
thread of one character's past).
"Blessed Are the Peacemakers" is not small in scope though it
ultimately focuses on a small area of the Ozarks. Interestingly, most of the
violent action takes place off-screen, with the emphasis being on how the people
cope with the aftereffects. This struck me oddly as the first battle scene was
bypassed, yet as the story progressed this technique worked. Fights and battles
are fleeting, their impact on the participants lasts.
Smith includes several historical figures, including Nathan
Bedford Forrest and Wild Bill Hickock. Though his historical research seems to
be sound, and is certainly far-reaching, there are a few errors that slip
through. Most of these are relatively minor time-line errors involving the more
famous of the Missouri bushwhacker/guerrillas—the James, Youngers,
and Bloody Bill Anderson with the first two becoming famous far before they
really did and the latter said to be dead several times before he really was. An
historical notes section at the end—unusual, but appreciated, in a fiction
novel—clarifies many areas as to what is documented history, what is
legend, and what is the author's own creation.
The writing sometimes lacks polish, with the point-of-view
jumping from character to character without warning. The timeline of events is
often confusing. There was also a tendency to use flashbacks without making it
entirely clear when we reach present time again. Overall, however, the flavor of
the writing style overcomes these technical writing issues.
This is to be a considered a recommended novel on its own merits
but especially so for those interested in the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi
where good fiction is rare.
Now available from Amazon.com
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From the webmasters of Civil War St. Louis...
Noted Guerrillas and, the extremely rare,
A Terrible Quintette
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