Try to meet me in Heaven where I hope to go.These poignant words were written in the summer of 1865 by twenty-year-old Confederate Sergeant Isaac Newton Koontz; in a letter he penned for his fiancée just hours before his death at the hands of Union firing squad in the heart of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The execution of Koontz and Captain George Summers came after the surrender at Appomattox Court House; and remains one of the most tragic yet little-known events of the Civil War. One month prior to kneeling on the hard ground to face their deaths; Koontz and Summers; along with four other Confederate soldiers; stole horses from a Union troop stationed near their home. Soon after the theft; the young men―remorseful and goaded by their fathers to uphold their honor―returned the horses and were offered a pardon by Union Colonel Francis Butterfield. The rebs returned home; free of mind and clean of conscious. All had been forgiven. Or so they thought. As the sun crept over the horizon on June 27; 1865; Union soldiers―under new command―swarmed the family homes of Summers and Koontz in a swift raid and arrested the two bewildered men. They were told that their pardons were no longer valid; and later that same day they were tied to a stake and shot with Union muskets―no trial; no judge; no jury. Before their deaths; Summers and Koontz were allowed to write farewell letters to their loved ones; and these heartrending documents serve as the basis for Robert Moore’s insightful recounting of the Summers-Koontz execution. An experienced Civil War writer and a direct descendent of Koontz’s fiancée; Moore brings this shocking story to life with a clarity that will appeal to Civil War experts and enthusiasts alike. Exhaustively researched and well written; Tragedy in the Shenandoah Valley tells one of the great and largely untold stories of the Civil War.
#951694 in Books Riverhead Trade 2013-08-06 2013-08-06Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.20 x .90 x 5.40l; .60 #File Name: 1594631522336 pages
Review
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Appealing; meaningful patchworkBy Konrad RiggenmannIn her two-star review; Miranda criticizes “that single threads of the book are separated from each other by other threads.†In my view; every single one of the two dozen chapters contributes important aspects of Doreen Carvajal’s story spanning from Spain to Costa Rica and over California and France back to Spain. In the patchwork structure of her narration; Doreen Carvajal mirrors the puzzle-like bit by bit completion of her recovered familiar history. As a skilled French/Spanish/English speaking journalist; she masters the art of writing; leading the writer ultimately to a sensible gestalt picture put together by 24 puzzle parts. Without the intention to write a scholarly book about Jewish identities broken or unbroken by Spanish inquisition – or recovered in modern times as in her personal case – she en passant conveys a colorful sketch of Europe’s anti-Jewish past from the Reyes Catolicos’ eviction edict of 1492 up to anti-Zionism of 2012. In her very down-to-earth way of reconstructing political within personal history; everything human from personal biographies to motor cycles and gastronomic recipes contributes to the whole; just as the subtle cloth embroideries are an important part of Pedro Berreguete’s painting of a stake burning that cleaves the landscape cover of Carvajal’s “The Forgetting Riverâ€. Whereas this book against forgetting appealed to me not least because of my similar rediscovery of familiar rootedness; Carvajal’s patchwork is rewarding for every reader defining herself or himself; in Viktor E. Frankl’s diction; as “man in search for meaningâ€.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Too Much for MeBy 4th gr tchrI'm really into genealogy and thought this would be a bio of the work this person went thru to find their roots and the history of the Spanish Jews and Inquisition. Well there was some of that; but a lot of it was introspection and retrospection. And I'm just not a fan of that. I used to think it was a crime to skip thru books to the end; but as I have gotten older I have come to believe life is too short to stick with a book I don't like...so I skipped to the end to find out if it all got resolved; but I won't tell!5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Sephardic ancestry--a parallel universeBy TerridWhile reading "The Forgetting River;" I immediately identified with author Doreen Carvajal's path of discovery in searching for Sephardic ancestry. She describes her quest through historical records; baptism; marriage and death records; old letters; DNA testing--which parallels the journey my cousins and I are traveling. Most of us; of course; cannot afford to actually pack up and live in our ancestral homeland; but reading about Doreen's experiences are a definite encouragement to do so. While some readers may not like Doreen's meandering approach; I found that her writing style reinforces the twists and turns that ancestral research actually takes. Some ancestors are easier to find than others; some of them may never be found. Her revelation that the University of California at Berkeley has the largest collection of Mexican Inquisition records outside of Mexico was stunning; and I now intend to visit the Bancroft Liberary. While in that library; she learned about Blas de Magallanes--which took my breath away--as Magallanes is a family name I recently uncovered myself. As a cousin often says; "there are no coincidences;" and those of us in the family who are doing family research have found that to be absolutely true. Throughout her book; Doreen excellently describes such coincidences; how a single clue can lead to a larger discovery; and how she is driven to find out more and more information. Of course; as sometimes happens; those clues can also result in frustration. Particularly; I enjoyed Doreen's tidbits about her relationships with the people in Arcos de la Frontera; and her ambivalence about the larger issue of possible conversion to Judaism. Her book is a gem; and on finishing it; I did not put it down; but turned to the first page to read the whole book a second time. In terms of describing one woman's search for her familial roots; Doreen Carvajal's book is a classic.
