THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019 // 19
BOOKMONGER
FAMILY-BASED NOVEL SEEKS
ATONEMENT, FINDS WAR
On a whirlwind trip to New York last week, I shoe-
horned in a visit to Ulysses S. Grant’s Tomb, on Manhat-
tan’s Upper West Side. The formidable monu-
ment was decked out in bunting
to mark the pass-
ing in late
July, 134 years
ago, of the
man who led
the Union Army
to victory over
the Confeder-
acy in the Civil
War, and later was
elected president.
The visit to the
monument had spe-
cial resonance for
me because I was
in the midst of read-
ing “No Common
War,” a novel about a
pro-Union family that
became embroiled in
the Civil War.
Author Luke Salis-
bury bases his story on
events from his own fam-
ily history. The book
cover features a photo-
graph of one of his ances-
tors. Sgt. Moreau J. Salis-
bury “saw the elephant”
(engaged in combat) mul-
tiple times during the Civil
War.
Moreau fi gures as one of
this novel’s principal fi gures,
as do his father, Mason Salis-
bury, and his cousin, Merrick
Salisbury.
The opening pages indicate
that these men come from a fam-
ily with roots in early colonial
history, and that their forebears
helped to instigate King Philip’s
War, which is considered to be the
bloodiest war, per capita, in Amer-
ican history.
This lurid family narrative has always haunted young
Moreau, who wishes to pur-
sue a life of penance in the
seminary.
But it is the early 1860s,
and with Lincoln’s elec-
tion, the Union is break-
ing up. Mason Salisbury
is impatient for his son
to man up and go off to
fi ght against those who
are claiming the right
to own slaves. When
Moreau resists, Mason
goads his son into
action by staging an
encounter with a run-
away slave.
The scheme bears
fruit: when Moreau
comes face to face
with someone who
has suffered life-
long enslavement,
and now is risk-
ing his life to
fl ee, the empa-
thetic young
man at last is
motivated to go
off and fi ght
for the cause.
Moreau
and his
cousin Mer-
rick are
given a
heady send-
off by the
commu-
nity. One
young
woman,
Helen,
is so stirred by
Moreau’s courage that in the excite-
ment of the moment she promises her faithful love
for him.
The cousins head to Washington City. At fi rst, they see
little action, but are witness to the rough conditions in the
nation’s capital.
THIS WEEK’S BOOK
“No Common War” By Luke Salisbury
Black Heron Press – 312 pp – $27.99
But by the summer of 1862, things heat up, and they are
thrust into a series of battles, fi nally arriving at Antietam
that September. The fi ght that ensues is the deadliest one-
day battle in American history, and both cousins are gravely
wounded.
When the family back home hears the news, the fathers
of Moreau and Merrick set out to retrieve their sons.
“No Common War” is provocative and tough. This is a
story of values, valor and the fl aws of fathers. It graphically
describes battlefi eld violence, and probes the trauma that
can be perpetuated through generations.
As one character asks, “What do we owe the dead?”
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd McMichael, who
writes this weekly column focusing on the books, authors
and publishers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Contact her at
bkmonger@nwlink.com