About this item
Reminiscent of Cold Mountain and Enemy Women, this is a gripping novel based on the incredible true story of a woman whose life was changed forever by the Civil War.In 1894 Carrie McGavock is an old woman, an old woman who has only her former slave to keep her company...along with the almost 1,500 soldiers buried in her backyard. Years ago, rather than let someone plow over the field where these young men had been buried, Carrie dug them up and buried them in her own personal cemetery. Now, as she walks the rows of the dead, an old soldier appears. It is the man she met that day of the battle that changed everything. The man who came to her house as a wounded soldier and left with her heart. He asks if the cemetery has room for one more.Flash back 30 years to the morning of the Battle of Franklin, a battle that was the bloodiest five hours of the Civil War, with 9,200 casualties that fateful day. Carrie+s home-Carnton Plantation-was taken over by the Confederate army and turned into a hospital; four generals died on her porch, and the pile of amputated limbs reached the second story window. And one soldier came to her house and reawakened in Carrie feelings she thought long dead. Zacharaiah Cashwell was a 32-year-old soldier who had lived a hardscrabble life. When Cashwell, wounded, was brought to her home, Carrie found herself inexplicably drawn to him despite boundaries of class and decorum. The story that ensues between Carrie and Cashwell is just as unforgettable as the battle from which it is drawn.n Carrie McGavock was famous throughout the country as the -Widow of the South+ and the -Keeper of the Dead.+ She spent over 40 years tending the graves of the soldiers and corresponding with their families. Up until now, her story has never been written.n Civil War history buffs will be drawn in by the true-life history that Hicks talks about in the special author+s note section that includes photographs of the real life characters.n The book will be exquisitly packaged with endpapers, interior photographs, and rough front. n Robert Hicks has been active in the music industry in Nashville for 20 years as both a music publisher and artist manager. The driving force behind the preservation and restoration of the historic Carnton Plantation in Tennessee, he stumbled upon the extraordinary role that Carrie McGavock played in and after the Battle of Franklin. This is his first novel.n Robert Hicks lives in Tennessee.
About the Author
I was born and raised in South FLorida. In 1974 I moved to Williamson County, TN (www.historicfranklin.com) ; in 1979 I moved to 'Labor in Vain,' a late-eighteenth-century log cabin, near Leiper's Fork, TN.
WOrking both as a music publisher and in artist management in both country and rock music, my interests remain broad and varied. A partner in BB King's Blues Clubs (www.bbkingbluesclub.com) in Nashville, Memphis and Los Angeles, I serve as 'Curator of Vibe' of the corporation.
A lifelong collector, I was teh first Tennesseean to be listed among Arts & Antiquities' Top 100 Collectors in America - my collection focuses on Outsider Art, Tennesseana, and Southern Material Culture. I served as co-curator (with Ben Caldwell and Mark Scala) on the exhibition, Ar of Tennessee, at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville. The exhibition was a seven year endeavor from conception at my kitchen table to its opening, September 2003. I was co-editor of the exhibition's award-winning catalog, Art of Tennessee (UT Press, 2003) .
In the field of historic preservation, I've served on the Boards of Historic Carnton Plantation (www.Carnton.org) , the Tennessee State Museum, The Williamson County Historical Society, and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (www.oldsalem.org/about/mesda.htm) . In December 1997, after a third term as president of the Carnton board, and in light of my years of service to Carnton, I was named by board resolution: "the driving force in the restoration and preservation of Historic Carnton Plantation."
For the past two years, I've headed up Franklin's Charge: A Vision and Campaign for the Preservation of Historic Open Space (www.franklinscharge.com) in the fight to secure and preserve both battlefield and other historic open space in Williamson County. Franlin's Charge has taken on the massive mission of saving what remains of the eastern flank of the battlefield at Franklin - the largest remaining undeveloped fragment of the battlefield - and turning it into a public battlefield park which will eventually run from the Lotz and Carter Houses (www.carter-house.org) to Ft. Granger and Carnton Plantation, with significant holdings around Breezy and Winstead Hills. (www.civilwarinteractive.com)
THE WIDOW OF THE SOUTH was born out of my many years of work at Carnton and my passion for the preservation of the remaining fragments of the battlefield. In writing the novel, my hope was to bring national attention back to this moment in our nation's history, the impact those five bloody hours played in making us a nation, and in the preservation of the sites tied to the story.
As a writer, my essays on regional history, southern material culture, and music have appeared in numerous publications over the years. I'm now hard at work on my next novel.
In my spare t
