I admit to a sneaking fondness for Colonel John Singleton Mosby, despite his poor taste in choosing sides in the Civil War. I like him partly because he was so brilliant at what he did, and partly because he seemed to have such a good time doing it. I’m not alone in my partiality; even his enemies admired him. At the end of the war, when there was a price on Mosby’s head as a fugitive criminal, Ulysses Grant himself intervened to save his life. Mosby, in return, became a supporter of Grant in the 1870s when he ran for president.
One final historical note: it may seem unlikely to twenty-first-century readers that anyone would take thirteen-year-old boys seriously as a soldiers, but teenage soldiers were common on both sides during the Civil War. The youngest registered Ranger in Mosby’s 43rd was only fourteen years old, and boys as young as twelve served as drummer boys in both armies. In addition, despite all the current hand-wringing about our diets, they are a major improvement over the Civil War era in terms of vitamins, minerals, and protein. And, accordingly, height and weight. Colonel Mosby, who was about 5’7” and weighed 128 pounds, would be unlikely to consider the average-size Ray and Robbie too small to be soldiers.
Acknowledgments
A work of fiction that contains historical fact requires considerably more gratitude than one that’s entirely made up. In researching the Civil War action in the Shenandoah Valley in general, and Mosby’s 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion in particular, I have relied upon Mosby’s Rangers, by Jeffry Wert; Reminisences of a Mosby Guerrilla, by John W. Munson; and The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby, by Mosby himself. For Civil War–era expressions and slang, my source has been The Language of the Civil War, by John D. Wright. I have appreciated the maps and descriptions of various battles published by the Civil War Trust at www.civilwar.org/ and the meticulous Order of Battle for the Battle of Cedar Creek, published by the National Park Service at
www.nps.gov/cebe/historyculture/order-of-battle-battle-of-cedar-creek.htm
I am profoundly grateful to the librarians and researchers at the Ruth E. Lloyd Information Center (RELIC) for genealogy and local history at the Bull Run Regional Library of the Prince William Public Library System, where Tish Como, Beverly Veness, and Margaret Binning managed to track down in a matter of days a trove of information about Nick Carter that had eluded me for months. I salute their research skills. Further thanks are due to Joe Molinaro, who assisted me with matters pertaining to Civil War geography; to my sister, Sally Barrows, who helped with regional information; and to my daughter Esme, who provided authoritative linguistic advice about thirteen-year-olds.
As always, I am relieved and grateful to be able to conduct my primary research at the University Library at the University of California, Berkeley. Without the resources I find there, most of my books would never have seen the light of day.
Also by Annie Barrows
The Magic Half
Copyright © 2014 by Annie Barrows
All rights reserved.
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
First published in the United States of America in September 2014
by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Electronic edition published in September 2014
www.bloomsbury.com
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For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 1385 Broadway, New York, New York 10018
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barrows, Annie.
Magic in the mix / by Annie Barrows.
pages cm
Sequel to: The magic half.
Summary: Life seems to be back to normal for “newly twinned” sisters Miri and Molly until their magical house sends them on a new time-traveling adventure to the Civil War, where they must risk everything to save two unusual soldiers and come to terms with the emotional truth about Molly’s past.
[1. Twins—Fiction. 2. Sisters—Fiction. 3. Time travel—Fiction.
4. Magic—Fiction. 5. United States—History—Civil War,
1861–1865—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.B27576Mb 2014 [Fic]—dc23 2014005032
ISBN: 978-1-61963-483-1 (e-book)
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Magic in the Mix Page 17
