Author Interview: Soldiers Just Like You

People always want to know how an author gets an idea to write about a particular subject. Here's some information about the origins of Soldiers Just Like You.

An interview about Soldiers Just Like You with Kelly O’Grady

Q: What inspired you to write this book?
A: The story in Soldiers is a natural sequel to the story told in the movie Glory. My research for another book I wrote called Clear the Confederate Way about the Irish in the Confederate army was the first spark for the book. Glory of course was a great movie about the charge of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry on Battery Wagner in the summer of 1863. In Glory the men defending the fort, a massive sand rampart on Morris Island, South Carolina, are as faceless and nameless as the storm troopers in Star Wars. My research told me that the defenders of the fort were soldiers just like the men of the 54th. In fact many of them were Irishmen from Charleston, the Irish Volunteers. That unit has a grand history, a unique monument with Ireland’s Lady of the Harp rising out of a Palmetto tree. That strange juxtaposition of symbols—you’ll only find that in Charleston. It’s in the Saint Lawrence Cemetery there—the Catholic cemetery. I felt the Irish Volunteers deserved to have their story told. But that spark took me to a whole other level when I realized what happened after the battle.

Q: So Soldiers is a military book?
A: Not at all. It’s really a courtroom drama. You see Glory also left out probably the most interesting part of the 54th’s history. Sixty black soldiers were captured in the battle and put on trial in Charleston that fall. They were charged with being slaves in insurrection and if convicted they could be executed or sent back into slavery. In a nod to the Constitution, the state appointed them lawyers and set a jury trial.

Q: This all really happened?
A: Yes, it’s part of the record, but there’s not much left of the trial, since Charleston was partially burned in 1865. We do know that one of the POWs’ lawyers was Edward McCrady, a Confederate colonel from Charleston and another civilian attorney, a man named Nelson Mitchell, who everyone at the time considered a joke for a lawyer. The book is well-researched. I was a historian with the National Park Service for ten years. I hope readers appreciate how the story sticks to the historical record. I think it’s authentic in its language and dialogue. I wanted to put the reader right back in the middle of the siege of Charleston.

Q: Knowing what we know about South Carolina during the war, it’s seemed like a forgone conclusion that the soldiers of the 54th would be convicted.
A: I’m sure that’s what the authorities thought. But they didn’t reckon with Nelson Mitchell, who I think is the real hero of this story. He would have to convince an all white jury, some of them slaveowners, that these black men were soldiers and not slaves. Remember, the 54th were the first black fighting unit in the war, and some of them became the first black POWs. You have to imagine that the Confederate authorities wanted to make an example of them, and the pressure on the jury to convict must have been enormous.

Q: It does sound like quite a story. Without giving too much away, how does the trial proceed?
A: There are a lot of surprises during the trial. Twists and turns of fate that the reader will not see coming. A Marian apparition plays a part in it, for instance, and a pathological prison warden creates quite a scene.

Q: It sounds like the story rests not only on historical fact, but well-drawn, interesting characters.
A: It’s almost unbelievable how many important figures of the war end up in Charleston during this period. Clara Barton, Harriet Tubman, were both there. PGT Beauregard is the Confederate commander. One of his deputies, Thomas Jordan, is from Luray, the town where I live. The commander of Fort Wagner is General William Taliaferro, a man who went to my college, William and Mary, and has a building there named after him. Of course, the commander of the 54th, Robert Gould Shaw, was killed in the battle. The sons of Frederick Douglass were there as was John Mitchel, the son of the Irish patriot. Of course I mix in numerous fictitious characters like Slim John Sweeney and the lovely Carmen Vezelay.

Q: Sounds like there’s romance among the cannon fire?
A: Absolutely. Not to glorify war, but the Civil War is probably the most romantic period in this country’s history. There is romance between some characters, but the real romance of Soldiers Just Like You is in the heroic stories on both sides. The black soldiers whom the trial revolves around, their lawyers, some of the Confederate soldiers and their families and sweethearts, the whole Charleston community. The story is a sweeping narrative wrapped around the beautiful city of Charleston and it encompasses what is happening on both sides of the battle line, in the city as the civilians try to cope with the Union siege and on the battlefields as Union and Confederate, black and white are swept up in the maelstrom of the war.

Q: You said you wanted to tell the story of both sides. Can you tell us about some of the heroes?
A: The main hero on the Union side is a soldier named Reuben Jeffries. He was twelve in 1863, a member of the 54th and a defendant in the trial. He is still alive in 1961 and tells the story in a flashback. He still bears a bayonet scar from the battle. He tells an audience of history buffs celebrating the centennial of the war: “I knew I won’t no angel. I always knew I was just a man. A soldier as brave or stupid as any fightin’ man who ever lived. Problem was them Rebels had to be taught that part. That I was a man-a soldier just like them.” That sets the tone of the book. Another hero is Captain William Ryan, the commander of the Irish Volunteers. He exemplifies the meaning of heroic duty. A hero isn’t a baseball player or a popular singer, like we think of today. A hero fulfills his duty even when he knows he will die trying. The ancient Greeks, the 54th Massachusetts, the Irish Volunteers understood what a hero is and knew what was expected of them. Mary Nora Ryan, Captain Ryan’s wife describes her husband as “so handsome, so brave, so holy.” The Ryans are devout Catholics. He is a shipping executive in civilian life, but comes to the defense of Charleston when the war starts. His religion is central to his story and his heroism.

Soldiers Just Like You by Kelly O’Grady. A great book to read in the sesquicentennial of the Civil War.