SEPTEMBER 13, 2018 // 15
IF YOU GO
Continued from Page 4
Raised in Chicago, she
was first bit by the Civil War
at age 13, when she de-
voured the near 1,000-page
novel “Gone with the Wind”
in just three days.
“I know the book is not
viewed very favorably for
many important reasons,
but I could not put it down,”
said Monson, who also
founded The Writer’s Guild,
a community literacy group.
“That novel launched my
interest in exploring the war
and that era. It’s a tribute to
the power of storytelling.”
Women of war
Revisiting a war that is
often described in terms of
“brother against brother,”
Monson instead focuses
on the often-overlooked
contributions of the mothers,
daughters, sisters and wives,
forming a rich tapestry of
diverse viewpoints.
Whether slave, slave
owner, immigrant, North-
Marianne Monson, author of “Women of the Blue
& Gray”
• Book launch: 7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 13, at KALA,
1017 Marine Drive, Astoria ($8)
• Book signing: 11 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 15, at Lucy’s
Books (free)
• Lecture, book signing: 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15,
Astoria Library (free)
erner, Southerner, black,
white or Native American,
Monson’s style of short
interwoven biographies
reveals just how complicated
the motivations, sacrifices,
wins and losses really were
for these women.
“I think it’s essential that
every person be allowed at
the table of discussion, even
if we don’t agree with their
point of view,” Monson said.
Within “Women of the
Blue & Gray,” espionage
comes alive. Meet the female
battle strategist to President
Lincoln, as well as women
who were the backbone of
Dining Out
abolitionist movements and
the Underground Railroad.
Women, on both sides,
took up arms, often in
disguise. Even then their
motives are singular.
See Frances Louisa Clay-
ton don one of her husband’s
suits, a false mustache and
goatee to enlist in the Union
Army under the name Jack
Williams and fight alongside
her beau on bloody front-
lines until he died.
Similarly, a young woman
named Melverina Elverina
Peppercorn slipped out of
the Tennessee hinterlands,
unable to watch her 16-year-
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old twin brother scurry off to
war alone. She followed him
into the Confederate Army
masquerading as a man,
eventually saving his life and
nursing him back to health
after he was wounded.
Historical surprises
Then there is the story
of Jennie Hodgers, who
assumed the male identity of
Albert D.J. Cashier five years
prior to the start of the war.
As Cashier, Hodgers
would survive forty bat-
tles with the 95th Illinois
infantry. She would live
as Cashier for the next 50
years until being discovered
when admitted to a state
hospital suffering dementia.
When staff forced her into
a dress, her fellow Union
vets decried the humiliation
and successfully petitioned
to save her military pension.
Her brothers-in-arms later
made sure her headstone
read Albert Cashier and ex-
claimed her military honors.
Monson was surprised to
learn of how many document-
ed cases there were of women
fighting in the Civil War.
“The number is estimated
at being up to 700 women
that served in the war in
disguise,” she said. “Previ-
ous to doing the research,
I would have thought there
were a few anomalous cases,
but nothing nearly this
extensive.”
Of equal surprise is to
learn that the Civil War also
tore apart the Cherokee
Nation.
A longstanding feud with-
in the tribe forced a fissure,
driving some to the Union,
others to the Confederacy.
Eventually, Cherokee Con-
federate general Stand Watie
would earn the distinction
of being the last general to
surrender the effort.
Monson focuses on his
wife, Sallie Watie, who was
forced to defend their home
from encroaching Yankee
soldiers, a home built well
after the Cherokee had
already been displaced from
their land.
“Native women particu-
COURTESY ASTORIA LIBRARY
The cover of Marianne Monson’s ‘Women of the Blue & Gray.’
larly were impacted negative-
ly by this conflict,” Monson
said. “They came out of the
war having suffered dramatic
losses on every level.”
A divisive time
But the book is not only
of interest to hardcore histo-
ry buffs. By inserting these
individual narratives into
a larger context, Monson
can see parallels between
this most infamous period
of U.S. history and our
fractured national mood of
today.
Like Trump, “Lincoln
was incredibly divisive,”
Monson said, adding in
an email that the South
“basically announced their
secession in response to the
election results.”
The comparison is
not completely out of the
question. Though it should
be taken tongue-in-cheek, a
recent Rasmussen poll found
that 31 percent of likely U.S.
voters believe a second civil
war is possible in the next
five years.
In fact, it was after the
election of the 45th pres-
ident that Monson began
to envision “Women of the
Blue & Gray.”
She got to thinking,
“What did it look like the
first time around? Do we re-
ally want to go back there?”
Monson’s next book
will be a work of historical
fiction about Marth Hughes
Cannon, the suffragist and
frontier doctor, who earned
the distinction of being the
first female U.S. State Sena-
tor, elected in Utah. Con-
troversially, she was also a
polygamous Mormon.
The book is slated for
a 2020 release, coinciding
with the centennial of the
Women’s Suffrage Move-
ment’s victory on voting
rights. CW