Elias handed Gretchen the small metal square. “That’s what they were, you know. Plural. Colonies banding together because they hated the British empire.”
Gretchen held the daguerreotype with both hands, staring at it. “We joined together to fight for our freedom.”
Tante Klegg motioned that Gretchen should climb aboard the wagon. Gretchen ignored her, waiting to hear what Elias had to say.
“Don’t know a whole lot about Mr. Lincoln,” Elias said, making Gretchen stiffen. “But I can tell he was a good man by the things the people at the funeral said about him. He tried his best. He didn’t deserve to die that way.”
Gretchen shook her head. Tears gathered in her eyes and threatened to spill. “Neither did my papa.”
Elias scratched the fabric wrapped around his forehead and began to unwind it. “No one deserved it. They fought because they believed in a greater nation. A united nation.” Elias ran his fingers through his hair. “You don’t deserve to be homeless because you fought for me.”
Gretchen handed the metal photo back to Elias and waved at the house. Werner’s screams grew hoarse and curse-laden. “I would have ended up homeless anyway.”
Elias bunched the bandage in his hands. “Look, Gretchen, I meant what I said in there. You’re a good person, and you’ve been good to me. And you’re smart. And funny. You take care of your own, and not your own.”
Her cheeks started to color, and she kicked a rock.
“Could you speak faster?” Tante Klegg said. “We do not know how long that door will hold Werner.”
“Let him speak his piece!” Gretchen said.
Tante Klegg spun in her seat, grumbling.
Elias found himself blushing. “Don’t have much else to say. I’m asking if you want to have the pastor marry us, but if you say no, I won’t bother you again.”
Gretchen climbed onto the wagon and reached down for his hand to help him up beside her. “Nothing would annoy Alina more than her pa marrying us.”
The kitchen door slammed open. Bullets sprayed from the house.
Gretchen screamed, ducking behind the side of the wagon. Tante Klegg slapped the reins, making the horse jump into a healthy trot.
Elias’s mouth dropped open.
“Elias!” Gretchen shouted, arm outstretched as the wagon bounced away.
Elias had no idea if he was a good runner. A bullet whizzed past his ear. He decided any form of running was better than standing still. He sprinted, reaching for Gretchen. She grasped his hand and yanked when he jumped. Elias crashed into Gretchen, and they both fell to the wagon bed.
Gretchen froze underneath him. He rolled away, clutching the wagon walls to keep from getting too close.
“You must say yes to him now,” Tante Klegg called over her shoulder.
Gretchen made a face at her. She watched Werner chase them for a couple of yards before falling from exhaustion. Alina dropped to the ground with him, cradling his head in her lap as he sobbed.
“Tell me about this united nation,” Gretchen said to Elias. She stared as the only home she had known disappeared from view.
Elias cleared his throat. “We’ve had a reckoning with ourselves, and I guess it was due. You don’t think we’ll start to hear ‘the United States is’? Single? One nation?”
Gretchen pressed her lips together as she pondered this. She liked the sound of a single nation. She was glad to hear the hope in Elias’s voice, because her hope was lacking these days. Her own cousin had tried to kill her, even though she had prayed for him to return home for years. Her papa was gone. The woman she called her mama had disowned her.
“One nation. Forged with the blood of brothers and fathers and uncles,” Gretchen whispered.
“And sisters and wives and aunts,” Elias said.
The wagon bounced down the road. The horse slowed to a walk once Tante Klegg realized Werner had stopped chasing them.
Gretchen crawled across the wagon to sit beside Elias. She took his hand and held it in her lap as she rested her head against his shoulder. “Mr. Lincoln wanted the country to come back together.”
Elias held his breath.
“And I swore I’d do my part.” Gretchen smirked at Elias. “But don’t worry. I’m not saying yes because I’m a patriot.”
Elias’s eyebrows shot up. “Then why are you?”
“Because you…” Gretchen laughed, a little breathless. “You saw me.”
Elias nodded. “I see you.”
The sun shone in high contrast from the clouds that gathered behind them. Gretchen, holding Elias’s hand, studied Tante Klegg’s back. Tante Klegg, her mother who never was and yet always had been. That was the sort of love worth holding onto, Gretchen realized. Noble, honest, and sacrificing. It was that sort of dedication that would bring the nation back together.
Gretchen smiled at Elias. “The United States is exactly where I’ll find my home.” She kissed his cheek and paid no mind to Tante Klegg’s grunt.
German Phrases
Mütter (n). mother
Vater (n). father
Tante (n). aunt
Verlobter (n). betrothed, male
Liebchen (n). term of endearment
Meine kleine schweister — “My little sister”
Meine kleine trottel — “My little idiot”
Kleines mädchen — “Little girl”
Fräulein — “Miss”
Größe Deutsch — “Greater Germany”
Reading Guide
Why do you think this book was named The Last April?
Do the location and environment of the book color the telling of the story or are they merely a backdrop?
How do the character perspectives color the story of life in Ohio after the president’s assassination?
What are some of the parallels between Lincoln’s assassination, Pearl Harbor, and 9/11 in American history?
Do you believe Gretchen’s motivations in bringing Karl/Elias into her home?
Would you open your home to someone you consider an enemy?
Did reading this book help you to understand a person better, or even yourself?
Author's Note
The Last April is a novel set in 1865 Central Ohio. At its heart, this is a story of “what is happening to the nation?” versus “what is happening to me?” that most individuals face at some point in their lives.
Abraham Lincoln’s assassination was the 1865 version of the September 11, 2011 tragedy. The more I learned about the nation’s reaction and panic in the days following Abraham Lincoln’s death, the more I wondered. Imagine 9/11 without social media, radio, or television. Where would you get your news? How would you know your sources were credible?
Can you believe it took almost a week for the Midwest to catch up to and make sense of the news coming from the D.C. area? The newspapers are telling. One city claimed all three politicians died (false). Another city claimed two lived (true).
Here are some things I learned while writing this historical story.
Lincoln’s Assassination
Assassination of President Lincoln by Currier & Ives Lithography Co.
Abraham Lincoln died from the first successful assassination attempt in the nation’s history. There were other assassination attempts on other presidents, though. An unsuccessful attempt occurred thirty years prior against Andrew Jackson. Mr. Lincoln often had nightmares about dying. He even had one vivid dream where he walked into a White House parlor to find an open casket. Upon asking who had the misfortune to die, someone said, “The president.”
John Wilkes Booth shot Mr. Lincoln on Good Friday, April 14, 1865. John Wilkes Booth was a famous actor (more below) and Confederate sympathizer. Lincoln attended the play Our American Cousin with his wife. It was their first “date” since winning the war. Lincoln hoped to mend his hurting marriage with his wife after the hardship of war and losing a child.
Instead, during a moment when the audience was loud, Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head
in his private box. Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln began screaming. Booth jumped to the stage, shouting, “Sic semper tyrannis.” This translates to “Thus always to tyrants.”
John Wilkes Booth
It rocked the nation when Booth shot Lincoln, not only because it happened, but because of who did it. A short, slight man, Booth was the sort of man other men wanted to be and the ladies wanted to court.
Imagine Justin Timberlake or Zac Efron plotting to kill the president. John Wilkes Booth was one of the most popular actors of the time. Girls—Yankee and Rebel—kept photos of him under their pillows.
The night of Lincoln’s death, there were two other planned attacks. Lewis Powell was to kill Secretary of State William Seward. George Atzerodt was to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson. Powell did break into Seward’s house and stabbed him and his son. Atzerodt got drunk and never left the bar.
Booth escaped Maryland but struggled to make it back to the Confederate states. Union soldiers set fire to the barn he hid in, and shot him so he lost control of his arms and legs. He died without apologizing. His diary shows he expected everyone to applaud his efforts. His entries show he was angry the newspapers did not treat him as a hero.
Civil War Photography
The Civil War encouraged photography to blossom in the United States. The Civil War was the most documented war in the nineteenth century, and the fifth in all history (as of 2017). It was the first war to use photos as war propaganda. It was also the first to use photos to help loved ones feel close to those at the battlefront.
Thanks to these photographs, we can see the young age of so many soldiers, Union and Confederate. We know how bodies were strewn across the battlefield. We know how generals conferred with their staff between battles. To learn more, research Union photographers Matthew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and Timothy O’Sullivan.
We don’t know a lot about the Confederate photographers. Many burned their originals when the war ended, out of despair, anger, and fear. We know many families burned photographs of their departed loved ones. Think of it as a sort of hysteria at having lost their family and the war. To learn more, research Confederate photographers George S. Cook, James Osborn, and Lieutenant Robert M. Smith. Lieutenant Smith was a Confederate imprisoned on Johnson’s Island in Ohio from Lake Erie. He made a wet plate camera from trash! You can read more about him and Yankee prison life in David S. Bush’s I Fear I Shall Never Leave This Island.
Germans in Ohio and the Civil War
About ten percent of the 2.2 million Union soldiers were of German-descent. Many of the German emigrants at the time had fled persecution of the educated elite. The United States received Germanic philosophers and idealists. Others fled to escape the brutal infighting from their own 1856 civil war.
Either way, they made a large contribution to American society.
Ohio and the Civil War
Lincoln is often quoted as saying, “Ohio won the war.” Many attribute this comment to the 320,000 Ohio men who volunteered for battle. This was the third highest number after New York and Pennsylvania. Almost 35,500 died in the line of duty, or of wounds, disease, drowning, murder, and other causes unstated.
Without the help of Ohio’s men, it’s hard to say what would have happened with the Civil War. All we can say is that those huge numbers bolstered the Union Army to counter the Confederate’s.
To learn more,
Visit the Ohio History Connection
Refer to my list of resources at the end of this book
Visit Grove City’s Century Village
Once a year, Grove City’s Century Village hosts a Civil War reenactment, where you can visit blacksmiths, a goods store, regiment training, and authentic buildings.
In fact, stories from Grove City elders inspired a couple of the smaller details in this novel.
Morgan’s Raid
There were two Confederate prisons in Ohio: Camp Chase in Columbus and Johnson’s Island in Sandusky. There were no battles in Ohio, unless you count Morgan’s infamous raid in 1863.
Many do not know of the raid because it happened on the same dates as the battles of Vicksburg and Gettysburg. Confederate newspapers called the forty-six day trek the “Great Raid of 1863.” This is because the cavalry hit places in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Union newspapers referred to it as the “Calico Raid.” This is because the raiders stole from small stores and civilians.
Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan’s Confederate cavalry struck fear into the civilian population. They distracted tens of hundreds of Union troops from their duties. They threatened the Ohio River trade and commerce. Morgan surrendered in Ohio and was imprisoned in the Columbus penitentiary. In a daring escape, Morgan and three of his officers dug a tunnel through their prison cell air shafts. They boarded a train and were in Cincinnati by the next morning.
Morgan’s raid was ineffectual. It caused the Confederates to lose a cavalry unit and rallied Union forces. It also influenced prisoner treatment in Ohio for the remaining two years of the war.
Camp Chase
Camp Chase was never meant to be a prison. It was a recruitment, training, and mustering out barracks. Four future presidents passed through Camp Chase as Union soldiers and guards. Can you name them? [1]
Camp Chase also housed Confederate and political prisoners of war from 1862 – 1865. As a prison, the populace overcrowded the shanty buildings. There were never enough guards to watch the prisoners. As such, guards often used martial law to maintain order. Guards shot a prisoner because he started a fire in the middle of the night one winter. They shot another in the leg for stepping over a line after mishearing instructions.
The government decommissioned Camp Chase almost immediately after the war. By July 1865, the government exchanged, released, or moved all prisoners. By May 1866, only a single guard protected the entire campgrounds. By 1867, lumber from the camp was used to build a wall around the cemetery. All that’s left of the camp today is the cemetery.
The Camp Chase cemetery is the largest Confederate cemetery outside of the Confederacy. It is in Columbus, Ohio in the Hilltop neighborhood. You may tour the cemetery and visit the yearly June remembrance ceremony for all who died in Camp Chase.
This remembrance ceremony began with the 1895 work of William H. Knauss, a former Union soldier, who honored those who died in the camp with an inscribed boulder. It remains there today and reads, “2260 Confederate soldiers of the war 1861-1865 buried in this enclosure.” He also commissioned a statue with its single, telling inscription, “Americans.”
* * *
Andrew Johnson, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, and William McKinley. ↵
Acknowledgments
Thank you for joining me on this adventure. Your time and imagination are precious.
Navigating microfilm is dizzying and gives me headaches. Thank you, Ohio History Connection and Library of Congress for digitizing The Ohio Daily Statesman!
The writer’s group at Wild Goose Creative kept me accountable to my passion. I am glad my parents empowered my reading habits as a child, which often meant I did not do the dishes until bedtime (but I did do them!) Thank you especially to my editor, Cindy Sherwood, for spending hours to correct my inconsistencies, and to Allison Lodico and John Wiley for providing invaluable reader feedback. And to Allison’s 2016-2017 5th Grade class for helping choose the title of this book!
Thank you to my doggies for cuddles when inspiration was lacking. Thank you to my funny husband who related to me by playing his childhood favorite computer game, W.R. Hutsell’s VGA Civil War Strategy. Thank you, hun, for letting me stay up late on work nights so I could write “one more word.”
References
(ALL SOURCES ARE INTENDED FOR ADULT READERS)
Archive.org. ‘Selected Records of the War Department Relating to Confederate Prisoners of War, 1861-1865 [Microform]’. N. p., 2014. Web. 26 Jun. 2014.
Barbiere, Joseph. Scraps from the prison table: at Camp Chase and Johnson’s Island.
W.W.H Davis, 1868.
Barrett, Richard. Images of America: Columbus 1860-1910. Chicago, IL: Arcadio Publishing, 2005.
Clay, Paul; Ongaro, Patti; and Neff, Lois. The Men and Women of Camp Chase. The Hilltop Historical Society.
Dodds, Gilbert F. Early Agriculture in Franklin County. 1st ed. Columbus, Ohio: Franklin County Historical Society, 1954. Print.
Griswold, Manfred M. ‘Ohio Civil War 150 | Collections & Exhibits | Prison Interior, Camp Chase, Ca. 1861-1865’. Ohiocivilwar150.org. N. p., 2013. Web. 6 May. 2013.
Henry, John King. Three Hundred Days In A Yankee Prison: Reminiscenses Of War Life, Captivity, Imprisonment At Camp Chase, Ohio, Vol 18. 1st ed. Atlanta: J.P. Daves, 1904. Print.
Hammock, Paul. “Reconstructing the South.” Echoes in Time Theatre, Ohio History Connection. 27 June 2015. 1 PM EST.
Immigration and Ethnic Heritage in Ohio to 1903. 1st ed. Ohio Memory, 2012. Web. 11 Jul. 2013.
Ivy Morris, Jack Jr. ‘Camp Chase, Columbus OH, 1861 – 1865: A Study of the Union’s Treatment of Confederate Prisoners of War.’ PhD. The University of Alabama, 1990. Print.
Jacksontwp.org. ‘History | Jackson Township’. Web. 4 Jun. 2014.
Jones, Robert Leslie. Ohio Agriculture During the Civil War. 1st ed. [Columbus]: Ohio State University Press for the Ohio Historical Society, 1962. Print.
Kelbaugh, Ross J. Introduction to Civil War Photography. 1st ed. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1991. Print.
Knauss, William H. The Story of Camp Chase: A History of the Prison and its Cemetery Together with Other Cemeteries where Confederate Prisoners Are Buried. 1st ed. Nashville, Tenn., Dallas, Tex.: Pub. House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Smith & Lamar, agents, 1906. Print.
The Last April Page 17
