A 
WIDOW OF THE SOUTH BY ROBERT HICKS
Reviewed by Gloria Oster
On November 30, 1864, 9,200 men were killed or wounded during the Battle of Franklin, considered by some to be the Civil War's bloodiest five hours. Robert Hicks, author of The Widow of the South, in the Author's Notes at the back of the book tells us "there were more casualties these five hours at Franklin than in the nineteen hours of D-Day-and more than twice as many casualties as at Pearl Harbor." The Union loss was numbered at 2,500 and the Confederate loss at 6,700.
What Hicks has wrought in his historical novel is a blend of careful research and active imagination. He has given individual faces and voices to actual and invented characters. Purely historical accounts most often do not provide the human element of momentous events; thus, the real driving force of history-emotion is absent, making reading history sometimes dull and bloodless. Historically, the Battle of Franklin was so important in sealing victory for the Union that General Isaac Hunter, a lieutenant colonel in the 111th Ohio Infantry during the battle, wrote: "At midnight on the battlefield of Franklin, the finger of destiny was lifted pointing the open road to Appomattox."
Hicks apologizes to his readers for "meandering from history in the interest of telling a story." Hicks need not have apologized. His novel conveys the enormity of this event while creating exceedingly self-aware characters participating in the events related to the battle and reflecting upon their own evolving attitudes. Novelist Tim O'Brien, who uses his own experiences in the Vietnam War to write books, observes that fiction is the lie that tells the truth. Hicks undertakes a more difficult task in his fictional Widow of the South because he must rely on what he uncovers in research to recreate the kind of truth that O'Brien is talking about.
The story is centered on Carrie McGavock, mistress of a plantation named Carnton, whose home is appropriated by Nathan Bedford Forrest to serve as a Confederate hospital. Carrie has lost three children to disease long before the battle begins, and she is struggling to come to terms with her loss. During the battle, while the wounded and dying are pouring into her home, Carrie serves as their nurse, secretary and confessor. After the battle, Carrie strives to ensure that 1, 500 Confederate casualties are identified and buried. She writes to their families to inform them of the fates of theirs sons, husbands, and fathers. When Carrie died in 1905, one obituary began: "The last Rebel was buried at Carnton yesterday." These are the facts.
The story of Carnton's use as a hospital and then as a cemetery is told from multiple points-of-view, each character's chapter using first-person narration. Using this stylistic tactic, Hicks skillfully develops characters struggling to understand their motivations to live, love, serve, and accomplish goals during this time of war. Such ruminations ring true. Most humans look for purpose and meaning in their lives when confronting such horrific circumstances.
The result is that we gather details of the battle and the developing relationships among the characters in a fragmented manner, leaving us to piece together an understanding of the story for ourselves in much the same way we would by having heartfelt conversations at different times with various friends about an event that each had witnessed, but we had not. We occupy the lofty position of attending a rhetorical dissection of some complex human emotions and thoughts.
Besides Carrie, another significant voice of the novel is Sergeant Zachariah Cashwell of the 24th Arkansas. The need to understand each other, and the attraction to the other each feels, is the centerpiece of the novel. The other primary voice of the novel is an omniscient narrator who provides information about Carnton, the town of Franklin, and other characters who become an engaging subplot to the main story. The secret confessions and free range roaming of these narrative voices result in a novel that works on both historical and psychological levels.
First, turn to the back of the novel; read the Author's Notes to understand the backdrop to the story you will read. Next, decide how you believe a writer can most effectively convey personal and collective history when the two are inseparable. Then, settle in to be entertained by a seamlessly written, character-driven novel. Finally, appreciate how Hicks makes the machinations of war and its aftermath more comprehensible.
Reprinted with permission from "A! The Magazine for the Arts"
