"The Widow of the South" By Robert Hicks

Just AWESOME!  Those who know me know that I love history.  I love learning about the past whether it be my family, my neighborhood and town or in the case of this book, The Civil War.  I have always been fascinated with that time in our county's history peaking with a recent obsession with Abraham Lincoln.  This book is an historical account of the battle of Frankin, Tenn. November 30, 1864 which includes the story of Carrie McGavock, her family and family home. Carrie and John McGavock's home is chosen to be a make-shift hospital for the wounded in the ensuing the battle.

At first, I felt like it was slow going, but once I saw what Robert Hicks, the author, was leading me to I became utterly entranced by the story.  I could not wait to read it everyday! 

It was in reading the chapters that go into detail about the battle at Franklin, I found those sentances that I love.  The sentances that I read over and over again because I actually feel the words written not just read them.  The first of those sentances was "I realized then that we are never still in life, that even when we think we are motionless, we are still vibrating a little.  It was odd and confusing, yet reassuring, to see a man at perfect rest.  And I went to join him".  The death toll at the battle of Franklin was over 8,000 Confederate Soliders in roughly 5 hours. 

Another of the sentances that I read and reread was "Lord, give me the wisdom to know what you want from me and how to do it".  Said by Carrie in prayer as her home is filled with the wouded and dying soliders.  There is so much carnage she does not know what to do...where to start...she is totally understandably overwhelemed.  There are only 2 doctors and thousands of men that need help.  And there, she knows she must do something but is terrified.  She wants to ignore..to run like hell, but realized that she is there for a reason.  Carrie is kind of a tortured soul already and barely gets through her days anyway and now life is demanding her to be part of it with the war literally brought to her doorstep.  She wants to give up, but something is keeping her there and she finally figures that she is the one God intended to hold the hands of the wounded men to nurse them back to health or ease the dying men in death.  It must be an amazing thing to realize your purpose in life the way Carrie did.  "There by the grace of God go I".  

Now, I have to admit..because I love a good love story... I relished in the relationship between Zachariah and Carrie.  That they connected so deeply as humans without being married or even lovers but as people.  To connect with someone without the borders or boundries that life puts in the way and to just be.   Although they never fully expressed their love for one another with physicality I dont think they really needed to.  They were intuitively bonded the second they laid eyes on each other.  Getting choked up just writing about it!!!!

Here are some pictures from the "Widow of the South"website which I found so cool to look at!  I have never read a book that had a website about it!

This is Carrie McGavock. 

Although not the best picture, this is the house Carrie and family lived in which they called Carnton. 

 A better picture, but this is the back of the house.  Carrie, John, and Zachariah talk about how they dead and wounded were stacked up on the porches on the front and back of the house.  The operating room was a 2nd floor bedroom and when they had to amputate they just chucked the limb out the window where a pile of disregarded body parts grew higher and higher.









There are so many beautiful parts to this book it's not just about death.  The metamorphosis that Carrie makes from the woman she was to the woman she became was inspiring.  She turned her home and property into a memorial and cemetary and became the caretaker to those who died during those few days and always remembered those that lived.  She wrote letters to as many of the families she could to tell them of thier sons, father or brothers last moments and final resting place. 

Here's the thing I kept forgetting when I was reading but will never forget again...these were real people and it really happened.