Description
No Common War by Luke Salisbury
ISBN: 978-1-936364-29-9
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-936364-30-5
Price: $27.99
Fiction
312 pages
In 1835, two Salisbury brothers journey to Washington City from Sandy Creek, New York to promote their town. In Washington, they witness a slave being whipped. Mason Salisbury tries to intervene and is struck across the face with the whip.
Mason becomes an ardent abolitionist. In 1861, his son, Moreau, is at seminary when Fort Sumter is fired on, beginning the Civil War. Moreau cannot reconcile the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” with killing, even given the abomination of slavery. But his mind is changed when he discovers an escaped slave trying to get to Canada. Moreau and his cousin Merrick join the 24th New York Volunteers.
The summer of 1862 is a succession of battles. The 24th Volunteers meets the rebels for the first time at Cedar Mountain. Moreau sees men killed, smells powder and blood, hears the screams of the wounded. He fires at Confederate soldiers firing at him. The 24th fights at Groveton, is part of the disastrous charge at the sunken railroad bed at Second Bull Run, fights its way up South Mountain under heavy fire, and then is in the third wave through the cornfield in the fateful battle at Antietam.
No Common War presents battle as the Civil War infantryman experienced it, and does not shrink from depictions of the primitive medical treatment of wounds and infection, but it also shows the home front where the families and lovers of the combatants must sit and wait.
No Common War is based on the war experiences of the author’s great-grandfather, Moreau Salisbury. The photograph on the book jacket is of the same Moreau Salisbury.
Reviews
“No Common War is no common Civil War novel. There is battlefield action, yes, but it also digs deeply into the emotional experiences of one family, the Salisburys. It shows how the war tears up the lives of two Salisbury brothers and the lives of the people who love them. These are historical characters, ancestors of the author, who brings them back to life for us.”
—Tracey Kidder, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of Soul of a New Machine and Mountains Beyond Mountains
“I was thoroughly engrossed. Beginning to end. And often found myself completely transported. The prose is clean. Smart. Vivid. And tight.”
—Tim O’Brien, winner of the National Book Award and author of The Things They Carried
“Author Luke Salisbury tells a compelling story about his ancestor Moreau, and it’s ‘as true as I can make it.’ Slavery is America’s original sin, and the Salisbury cousins are among so many who pay penance. An engrossing, well-told story by a writer with a unique perspective.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Beautifully written. No Common War ranks as one of the best war novels in decades.”
—Foreword Reviews
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