Remember the soothsayer’s
warning about the Ides of March? Well, history teaches us that we should be
more wary about the Ides (and other days) of April, notwithstanding that old saw
about April showers bringing May flowers. Consider this list: Abraham Lincoln murdered
by John Wilkes Booth, the Titanic’s unplanned meeting with an iceberg, the 1927
Great Mississippi River Flood (the worst flood in U.S. history), the San
Franciso earthquake, the Virginia Tech shooting, the Oklahoma City Bombing, and
Columbine High School—which happened on April 20th, the birthday of
that little Austrian Corporal who caused such death and destruction in the Second
World War. Each of these horrific events, and likely many others, occurred in
April.
And you don’t need to
take my word that April is a Disaster-O-Rama. For a more comprehensive listing
of events and a comparison of April with other months, see the post: Does More
Tragedy Happen In April? - GeekDad. I suspect that you might need a bit of
bourbon as the spark of recognition, and perhaps fear, makes the hair on the
back of your neck stand at attention.
But we can’t just stay under
the covers for an entire month, can we? We have lives to lead. Books to write.
Families to raise. So, despite what challenges April may bring, we must do our
best to cope, to deal with each hurdle that presents itself. Right?
So, you think your April
has been rough? This blog highlights a book one of the most challenging months
of April ever to face us as Americans, a month that could have brought about
the destruction of our nation—and of government of the people, by the people,
and for the people.
In April 1865: The
Month That Saved America, Jay Winik delivers a compelling narrative detailing
the last days of the American Civil War and our first steps toward national
reconciliation. Our experiment with disunion didn’t happen overnight. The cannonade
against Fort Sumter in 1861—another April event—might have been the final
spark, but, as Winik painstakingly details, threats of secession—from every geographic
quarter, not just the South—haunted our nation almost immediately after John
Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence.
However we got there,
four wars of civil war took their toll. Over 600,000 Americans—nearly one-twelfth
of the Northern states’ population and one-fifth of the Southern states’ population—lay
dead. Southern cities smoldered in ruin. An attempt to behead the government,
including President Lincoln’s assassination and attacks on the Vice President
and Secretary of State, had nearly succeeded. Bitterness from the brother-versus-brother
conflict could have easily plunged our country into an ongoing Hatfield-McCoy nightmare.
But that future didn’t come to pass. Why?
According to Winik:
April
1865 was incontestably one of America’s finest hours: for it was not the
deranged spirit of an assassin that defined the country at the war’s end, but
the conciliatory spirit of the leaders who led as much as in peace as in war, warriors
and politicians who, by their example, their exhortation, and their deeds,
overcame their personal rancor, their heartache, and spoke as citizens of not
two lands but one, thereby bringing the country together. True, much hard work
remained. But much, too, had already been accomplished.
As is often the case, books
like April 1865: The Month That Saved America, provide perspective and
lessons beyond the historical situation discussed. Some might argue that we,
today, face another crisis of national identity and unity. I’ll let you reach
your own judgment on that point. But I’ll leave you with this disturbing question:
One-hundred years hence, will a college history professor write a book called April
2024: The Month that Doomed America?
I hope not. Mirroring Winik’s
basic premise, I pray that our current batch of leaders and politicians may “. . .
by their example, their exhortation, and their deeds, overcame their personal
rancor, [and] their heartache,” to recall that we are citizens of a single
nation, with a single flag, and a common commitment to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
Oh my! This is supposed
to be a blog about mystery writing by the sea. Why are we even thinking about the
calamities of April and the potential destruction of our way of life? It’s the
story. April 1865: The Month That Saved America is both great history
and a great story. And, April 1865 unfolded, no one knew how it would end. Once
you read this book, I think you will agree that it reads like a novel, full of
twists-and-turns and cliff hangers. Fiction or non-fiction, a great narrative is
a thing to behold. Fiction speculates about what characters—people invented in
the writer’s imagination—will do in response to circumstances. Non-fiction
tells us how real people reacted.
Here's wishing you a happy and uneventful remainder of April. Those May flowers will be with us soon, I hope.
