The Secret Of War: A Dramatic History Of Civil War Crime In Western North Carolina

About this book

Civil War crime in western North Carolina is the subject of The Secret of War by Terrell T. Garren. Based on the true-life experience of Delia Russell Youngblood the great-grandmother of the author the book "captures what the Civil War was like in the mountains and throughout the south." After hearing his great-grandmothers story Garren spent nearly fifteen years researching this story in particular and the Civil War history of western North Carolina in general. It is the story of Joseph Youngblood and Delia Russell of Hoopers Creek in Henderson County North Carolina. The reader will follow Joseph through his enlistment as a part of Company H the "Cane Creek Rifles " of the 25th North Carolina Infantry Regiment to the Battle of Malvern Hill Virginia and to battle in Sharpsburg Maryland where he was captured. Taken to the Union Camp Morton in Indianapolis Indiana he finally escapes and make his way down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers into Mississippi. Attempting to make his way back to North Carolina he is in Dalton Georgia in May of 1864 when fourteen Confederate soldiers including a brother are executed for "desertion." Ultimately being recaptured he goes back to Camp Morton until the end of the war. Told with historical accuracy names battles and places in this story are true to fact. Readers will recognize place names in Henderson Jackson Haywood Cherokee Transylvania Clay Macon and Buncombe Counties in North Carolina. Family names mentioned include Fletcher Carland Lewis Bishop Bryson Freeman Henderson Fowler Whitaker Wheeler Summey Russell Barnwell Ward Lanning Hammond Garren Youngblood and Blake. What sets this book apart from many however is the story of what happened to the women left behind at home. The story reveals how the lowest criminal element found its way into the Union Army. Many mountain men motivated by greed and an awareness of the demise of Confederate authority signed up with no interest in any cause but their own. Union officers who enter the picture include Generals George Stoneman Alavan C. Gillem and William J. Palmer. Palmer enters the story late but emerges as a man of genuine integrity and selfless bravery opposed to and fighting this element in his own army. Dr. Newton Smith of Western Carolina University says "The Secret of War" is that rare historical novel that captures both the romance and the grit and gore of war on the home front without distorting the history. It is about time someone did the story of the Civil War in the southern mountains right." Rob Neufeld writing in the Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times has said the book "is a must read" and "as a contribution to our understanding of the most disturbing passage in our history it is indelible." He further writes "Fiction? It really happened; and if it hadnt the author wouldnt be around to tell it....Although Garren has written fiction he wants you to treat it as history. After all at the back of his book he provides an index."