Exploring the Drama at Perryville

 Adding fictional dialogue to factual situations, Willever describes the events that preceded the battle through the eyes of leading participants.

We get to know Union Gens. George Thomas and Phillip Sheridan, Confederate Gen. Leonidas Polk and J. Stoddard Johnston, a colonel on Bragg's staff who had a home in Georgetown and would later be a Louisville newspaper editor and Kentucky secretary of state.

Willever's dialogue doesn't have the cadence of Shaara's. But by putting words in the mouths of soldiers and citizens, he puts flesh on their long-dead bones.

He ends his book with Bragg camped near Harrodsburg on the day before the battle, convinced that the larger part of the Union army was miles away, marching on Frankfort, when it was in fact almost at his doorstep.

Willever, who was at the Perryville re-enactment earlier this month, said he will cover the battle in a companion book he's working on now. If you want to know who won, you'll have to wait.

Ric Manning • Louisville Courier-Journal • October 24, 2009

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Review by Dr. Michael J. Deeb, Author of "Duty and Honor"

While all the border slave states were important to the survival of the Union, President Lincoln early in the Civil War said of Kentucky, "I think that to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game." Michael Willever provides an interesting glimpse of four days, October 4th through October 7th, 1862, when the military contest in Kentucky might have decided the issue.

This is not a novel about the fighting men of either just the North or South - but of both. We are guided through the ebb and flow of the contest for Kentucky through the eyes of several leaders, three northern and four southern, during the four days preceding the crucial Battle of Perryville.

In response to President Lincoln's initial call for troops, Kentucky's Governor Magoffin replied, "Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister Southern States." But, contrary to what one might have expected, that state's leaders also chose not to leave the Union. Instead, they declared their neutrality in the developing conflict.

In response, the governments in both Washington and Richmond announced their intentions to honor Kentucky's decision to remain neutral. This did not prove to be the case for very long.

Immediately, representatives of the Federal government began to recruit regiments from within Kentucky. In addition, contracts with Kentucky citizens were secured for supplies for Union forces. In response and to gain a significant military advantage, Confederate forces under General Leonidas Polk openly invaded the state on May 3rd, 1861, and occupied Columbus on the Mississippi. Two days later Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant entered Paducah on the Ohio.

The Kentucky governor then asked Union General Robert Anderson to expel the southern forces from the state. This was all the excuse Washington needed to tighten its hold on all territory it controlled in the state. Military occupation forces began to arrest and jail anyone thought to be disloyal to the Union. And so it went.

But in the fall of 1862, the Confederates planned to invade Kentucky with the Army of the Mississippi under General Braxton Bragg. Facing this threat were the Union forces under General Martin.

Thus began the conflict that is the primary subject of this novel. Both leaders directed other officers who actively commanded troops in the field. For the North we see General Phil Sheridan as a tough field officer concerned for the well-being of his men. In General Patrick Cleburne of the Army of the Mississippi we see an engaging officer who is not afraid to lead boldly.

The author reveals military strategies, disagreements, successes and failures through conversations he attributes to these central characters and members of their respective staffs. It is most entertaining. However, the absence of maps throughout the text makes it difficult to follow the contest. Nevertheless, the author paints an interesting and believable explanation of what happened in Kentucky during those four critical days of October 1862.

Reviewer Dr. Michael J. Deeb is the author of Duty and Honor.

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Monroe County CWRT

 Michael Willever brought the story of his newly published book A Dark and Bloody Ground: Sowing the Wind, to the April meeting.
Michael is a passionate and engaging speaker, able to transmit his emotion and expertise to one of the largest Roundtable crowds in recent months. Having been a minister at one time in his life certainly allowed him to be comfortable speaking to a large group, and his lifelong enthusiasm for Civil War history made his talk especially engaging. He held the group enthralled from beginning to end.
Two questions that were in some minds of those attending were quickly answered by Michael. The first was “Why Perryville?” The obvious answers were proximity of the battlefield to his home here in central Indiana and the greater interest in the western theater of the war that permeates the Midwest. But a big reason, he said, was simply because no one had done any significant work on Perryville for many, many  years. The bigger question, however, was why his new book turned to fiction, since some Civil War “buffs” look down on novels as not worthy of consideration. Michael cited one of the favorite books, Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, as an example of how historical fiction can be accurate, and at the same time enthralling. The accuracy comes from the extensive work by his co-author, Michael Phelps, in researching the topic. Michael’s enthusiasm “sealed the deal,” so to speak.

Don’t let “fiction” put you off. Michael’s novel takes accurate historical information and adds flesh to the wartime figures we have all have known throughout our lives. Go to the website, read the comments, look at the pictures and maps and you will see why this was a fascinating evening that warrants a consideration of Michael’s book, which will make you anticipate his sequel coming in the fall, A Dark and Bloody Ground: Reaping the Whirlwind. If you liked The Killer Angels, you should give this book a chance.