APPLAUSE

Click on the links below to see professional reviews of my books:

A Young Canadienne in the Union Army
Soldier Girl Blue
By James Knights
Review by Katy Berman, Civil War Courier (www.CivilWarCourier.com)

James J. Knights is as an interesting a subject as Emily Edmunds, protagonist of his most recent novel, Soldier Girl Blue. Knights is a former FBI Special Agent, author of several articles on law enforcement recruiting, has been a volunteer pilot for the Civil Air Patrol, and currently serves on the board of directors for the Society of Women and the Civil War. He is proud of his film debut as an extra in the Tom Hanks film, “You are My Friend.” Oh, and he keeps honeybees.

Soldier Girl Blue intertwines several of Knights’ affinities. Emily is Canadian, one of hundreds who fought in their neighbor’s Civil War. After fleeing her New Brunswick home in 1858, vulnerable because she is a woman traveling alone, Emily disguises herself as Edmund Fredericton, a traveling Bible salesman. Later, in Maine he (Knights’ use of pronouns depends upon Emily being in or out of disguise) witnesses a brutal attempt by a Southern slaveholder to recover his lost property. He intervenes and is supported by a Pastor Broussard, also in the crowd. Outraged by what he has seen, Edmund decides to volunteer for the Union Army.

Knights peoples his narrative with historical figures, figures of his own imagination, and figures that lie somewhere in between. Men and women such as Generals George C. McClellan and George Meade, spies Antonia Ford and Elizabeth Van Lew are incorporated into the narrative to good effect. He includes a vivid account of Thaddeus Lowe’s first launch of an observation balloon near Yorktown, a description of a contraband encampment nearby, and an early sighting of the new ironclad vessel, U.S.S. Monitor.

Sarah Emma Edmonds was a real person who disguised herself to fight and spy for the Union. She left an embellished account of her adventures that can be read on-line.

In Knights’ version, Edmund (Emily) becomes a nurse, and heroically braves the Bull Run battlefield to rescue wounded soldiers. Later, he assists the brusque, no-nonsense doctor, Captain David L. Macgregor at a hospital in Georgetown. Soon, characters from the Maine episode begin to appear: Pastor Michael Broussard and his wife Kate, the escaped slaves, Henny and her daughter Becca, the slaveholder, and villain of the piece, Hector Cane. The latter holds one grudge against Edmund for intercepting a blow intended for Becca, and another against Broussard for knocking him into a pile of manure. Then, Edmund’s neighbor from New Brunswick, James Valentine, is brought to the hospital suffering from dysentery. He too, has volunteered to fight against the injustice of slavery, and serves on General McClellan’s staff. Edmund nurses James back to health, and they fall in love.

Coincidences abound. Cane, considered a despicable boor by Federals and Confederates alike, loses his slaves a second time (that’s how they end up in the contraband camp), and again sets off in pursuit. Before venturing across Yankee lines, he is recruited by Antonia Ford to spy for the South: General Joseph Johnston, suspecting a move on Richmond, wants to capture one of McClellan’s top aides and interrogate him. Cane’s mission is to locate a likely prospect. Cane consents, and ends up mingling with the crowd watching Lowe’s balloon on its maiden launch. He spots James and Edmund as they rescue Colonel Fitz John Porter from the balloon’s gondola when the wind comes up, and realizes he has seen them together outside the Georgetown hospital. Also standing in the crowd is Pastor Broussard who recognizes Cane from their encounter in Maine and senses danger. Not long afterwards, Cane manages to spy on Emily and James as they enjoy a lovers’ tryst in an abandoned shack. He realizes that Emily was the meddler in Maine who kept him from beating his slave, and vows revenge; James, he will refer to General Johnston as a likely subject for interrogation.

Hector Cane might be particularly repulsive, but no Southerner in Knights’ novel arouses our respect. They are invariably arrogant, fanatical, lecherous, cruel, or willing to be bought. One Confederate woman, Alice Nevitt, is an exception of sorts. She is arrested by Edmund after threatening to shoot him, taken to the Union camp, and is ultimately redeemed through her good works and changing values. In Soldier Girl Blue all virtue belongs to the abolitionists, black and white; ending slavery is discussed as the war’s chief aim. Runaway slaves, including Henny and Becca are intrinsic to the plot and the resolution of its most severe crises. Federals are not flawless; some are even cowardly. Nevertheless, in this novel, they possess the highest principles and engage in the noblest endeavors.

Despite its unfavorable (unfair?) characterizations of Confederates, Soldier Girl Blue is remarkably successful in many of its descriptive details. Particularly gruesome are the accounts of hospital surgeries. Dr. McGregor, with bloodied hands, probes “a ragged hole in the man’s thigh.” Edmund observes a captain with a mortal abdominal wound: “The unremitting contraction of the stomach muscles relentlessly twisted and ground the wound.” On a larger scale, Knights displays a clear sense of place, whether describing the varied fleet of vessels ferrying men and materiel from Alexandria and Annapolis to Fort Monroe, or the immediate environs of Libby Prison in Richmond. Read the review online here: timelinesmagazine.com/book_reviews/soldier-girl-blue/article_e6abd878-4ced-11ea-82d3-3beac248f3e0.html

Soldier Girl Blue will be valued for revealing the part played by many Canadians during our Civil War. In her introduction, Barbara Franco, of the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum, explains that as many as 50,000 Canadians fought, primarily for the Union. Emily’s origins add interest to a novel that will appeal to many readers for its drama, action and intrigue.

Title: Soldier Girl Blue
Author: James Knights
Publisher: S&H Publishing
Pages: 379
Price: $19.95
Soft Cover