Sue Mundy: A Novel of the Civil War by Richard Taylor (review)

BOOKREVIEWS enhance students' understanding without removing focus from the primary sources. The back matter contains a detailed timeline , selected bibliography, and discussion questions. While the introduction is informative,the lack of a conclusion forces readers to ponder the war' s legacy in Ohio with little guidance. Although Ohio' s southern border receives ample attention in earlier chapters, the final chapter offers no indication of how emancipation in Kentucky and the subsequent black migration affected the debate over black rights in Ohio. Still,the collection is a welcome addition to regional and community history . Useful as a text for courses on the Civil War and Ohio history,Ohio' s IVar Will also be of interest to professional and amateur historians interested in the Civil War in the Ohio Valley. Stephen Rockenbach Virginia State University Richard Taylor. Sue Mundy: A No' uel oftbe Civil War. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,2006. 359 pp. ISBN 9780813124230 ( cloth), $ 29.95. Guerrilla fighting in the border states poses a special challenge to historians of the American Civil War. ' Ihe atmosphere of uncertainty,the unpredictable loyalties of communities neither wholly Union nor Confederate,and the complex dynamics of winning and losing all muddy the waters ofpedagogy and analysis. Richard Taylor's novel,which examines the experiences of : i young guerrilla in Kentucky,helps to ease this problem by dramatizing the human interactions at the heart of the war. Taylor reveals the war through the eyes of Marcellus Jerome Clark ( Uarom" in the novel), a Kentuckian who fights as a Confederate soldier,a raider with John Hunt Morgan, and then a member of a small band of irregular partisans. Clark is one of several men who may have been Sue Mundy," the female guerrilla. Tivlor does not focus on any of the gender implications of this misnaming , however,but on 1 the lived eXperiellce Of 4, 6#, 1 2 Clarke' s war. 8'] fft«'. At its best, the ]' ' 0* Z* « ' novel recreates a terrif\,-f< INIAjlW. t] ing world of misplaced 1-' 0'4«* 10 "I loyalties and impossible T choices. . i ' aroins inner ililliwijjilifijp' dialogue, in partictil,ir, if'*'=° 131= oi,, 6'* Wir, K.. w* B ft * . 4.* 11* l'15 + 011 emphasi' Les the sense « . 4 Ir, ajp# * 1 of loss that a conflict among neighbors inevitably creates. He struggles with violence and greed, loyalty and innocence. By the time of his execution in March 1865, Jarom has come to see himself as a pawn in the larger game played by the nation. For teachers of history who struggle to transport students to the past, this novel could prove useful. Written by a poet and professor of English, it does not claim to advance historiography or to fit seamlessly into the existing historical an·alysis. Instead, it examines a particular person in vivid detail. Given the difficulty students face in their efforts to interpret history on its own terms, such a focus offers both a personal viewpoint and a chance to step backward. That is, it avoids presentism while inviting the reader to imagine him or herself in Jarom: s life. At times, Taylor's integration of'history and fiction can be mechanistic, and readers may initially struggle to enter the world portrayed by the novel. As an entry in the long list of Civil War fiction, this book does not rise to the level of the best existing work. Still, portions of the book offer clarity,insight, and an enveloping sense of being there. Most suggestive, FALI« 2007 85 BOOK REVIEWS both to students and historians,is the idea that an intriguing story might capture the imagination of a creative intellect. lhis novel is the product of just such a spark. In the real story of the Civil War, many similar opportunities await intrepid writers of both history and fiction. Fiona Deans Halloran Eastern Kentucky University Edward H.Miller. 7be Hocking faney Railway. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007. 347 pp. ISBN 9780821416587 cloth), $ 29.95. In 732 Hooking Valley Railway, Edward Miller rescues part of Ohio' s railroad history from obscurity. Knowledge of the Hocking Valley Railway ( HV)as a sepaTHE HOCKING VALLEY RAILWAY 1=* 11% 1@= 1% rate entity faded after the Chesapeake and Ohio ( C& 0) absorbed this road that ran from the hill country of southern Ohio northeast through Columbus, ending ultimately in Toledo. Miller' s work resurrects the HV' s storied history. Miller began working on the Hocking Division of the C& 0 in 1966. After learning that it had previously been the HV,he began collecting records,photographs,maps, and drawings about the defunct company, learning how it developed, what drove its development,and what became of it. After Roger Grant's brief historical introduction, Miller recounts the planning, investments, and construction that created the trunk and branch lines that eventually became the HV. ' Ihe company took its name from the Hocking River,which flows past the Ohio towns of Lancaster, Logan, and Athens on its way to the Ohio River. In the mid1850s , Milbury Greene traveled through the Hocking Hills,envisioning a transportation link from the local coalfields and iron furnaces to Columbus. After Greene and other investors overcame several obstacles, construction on the Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad began in 1867. The railroad reached Lancaster in May 1869, Logan in August of the same year,and Nelsonville by May the following year. At the same time, Greene organized another group of investors to build the Columbus and Toledo Railroad, construction of which began in 1875; the first coal trains arrived in Toledo in January 1877. In 1881, stockholders voted to consolidate both companies as well as the Ohio and West Virginia Railway to create the Columbus, Hocking Valley, and Toledo Railway ( CHV& T).Miller details the corrupt accounting practices that accompanied the merger. Company officers devised a convoluted scheme involving correlated business ventures, bonds, and new stock sales that netted them hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock,but saddled the CHVkT with crippling debt. Strikes and economic depression exacerbated the company's woes during the 18905,and the company went into receivership in 1897. The " greatest auction sale in the history of Columbus" occurred in 1899 when the CHVkT assets were sold to a new group of investors that subsequently created the Hocking Valley Railway ( 98). In 1910,the C& 0 bought a controlling interest in the HV and operated it as a subsidiary until 1930, when the CBGO officially absorbed it. Over the next four decades, passenger traffic steadily declined, and in the 1970s, C& 0 executives determined that freight service was no longer profitable on the Hocking Division and retired track after track of the old road. 86 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY 6.,* 4.. 2 ...