THE BATTLE OF NUECES, by Frank Kelso

I'm honored today to have Frank Kelso here to talk about his book, True To The Union. Take it away, Frank.

Kelso here to talk about his book,

Southern writers have become their own genre. They often find the roots of their stories hidden in the Civil War, a tragic war spilling the blood of 620,000 people. History has forever linked the Civil War to slavery’s tragedy. No Southern writer today should deny the lasting damage slavery caused. Nor should they deny the generations-long damage Southern people suffered from the War and Reconstruction. The War altered the southern mindset, instilling a passive-aggressive nature in a society that no longer tolerated open rebellion or public discord.

In recognition of these factors, Civil War events are the basis of the historical fiction I write. To develop new story ideas, I peruse Civil War history books and internet sites, focusing on events that are stranger than fiction. My stories seek to neither glorify nor condemn one side or the other, but instead illustrate how the War affected the men and women in that period and their heirs. My writing puts a human face to the tragedy and incorporates elements to make the story relevant in today’s society.

One incident catching my attention was the death of sixty German immigrants who, faced with conscription into the Confederate Army, fled toward the Mexican border, ninety miles south. A Confederate detachment of Texans intercepted the Germans at the Nueces River. The ensuing battle resulted in their deaths; they executed the wounded after the shooting ended. In Gainesville, Texas, Confederate forces hung more than 40 men as “traitors” for belonging to the Union League. Jefferson Davis condemned both events and forbade such future action.

 

How do you put a human face on such tragedy? I studied the circumstances leading the “Battle of Nueces,” as the Confederacy called it. The Germans, who spoke little English, neither understood the issues nor related to the angst of their Texan neighbors advocating secession, and War if need be. These immigrants came to the United States to avoid martial conflicts in Germany; their initial loyalty lay with the country that gave them refuge. For the Texans, the immigrants were cowards and traitors, deserving death. The immigrants who remained behind found their young men facing conscription (Draft) into the Confederate Army, which needed men to feed the insatiable war in the East.

In my award-winning short story, True to the Union, I imagined one such German family. I show their struggle with the decision to send their seventeen-year-old son, Wilhelm Anschutz, across the wild prairie to (Union) New Mexico to prevent his conscription. I follow Wil’s journey to West Texas where he thwarts an attack by marauding Kiowa on a farmstead after its family befriends him. A small Confederate patrol arrives afterwards, intending to conscript all the men into the Army. The officer plans to escort the farmstead’s men to Austin, where they will confiscate the men’s goods, wagon, and horses. Wil’s friends face losing the farm and homestead they’ve struggled to build, which will leave the wife and children destitute and alone. His friends and he share the same fate leading Wil to stand beside his friends to the end.

Comfort, Texas, built a monument to their fallen friends who died in the Battle of Nueces, determined to be True to the Union, the title of the monument.The immigrant dilemma of different origins, languages, and cultures pulls at the fabric of our society now, as then. Tolerance is an easy word to say and yet hard to put into practice.

 Book description:

Across a nation divided by the Civil War, neighbor fought neighbor. In Texas, Confederate Texans considered Texas members of the Union League, who voted against secession, to be traitors to the Confederacy. Confederate Texans hunted these individuals and executed or hung them without mercy. Sixty German immigrants from Fredericksburg Texas were slaughtered on the banks of the Nueces River for being "True to the Union."

Author Bio:

Frank Kelso grew up around Kansas City, Missouri, the origin of the Santa Fe Trail. Historic sites, monuments, and statues abound highlighting the journey west, including the Wagons West, Pioneer Women, and the Indian Scout located on the bluffs overlooking the wide Missouri. Writing western themed books fit with his upbringing. His parents considered storytelling a family tradition, and the taller the tale, the better, when sharing around the supper table. A biomedical research scientist in his day job, Frank writes short stories and novels to keep the family traditions alive.

 

Frank has several of his award winning short stories available on Amazon, which he uses to promote a following for his coming novels, “The Apprenticeship of Nigel Blackthorn” to be released in Fall of 2017 and “A Message to Santa Fe,” to be released in Spring of 2018.