Z is for ZIMMERMAN

by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

If you’ve read my A to Z posts, you know about the horrors of Andersonville Prison and the disastrous sinking of the steamboat Sultana. And my historical fiction novel LIKE A RIVER (due out in Spring, 2015).

I had wanted to write a novel about Andersonville and the Sultana for many years and had written several first chapters, but I spent most of my writing time on other projects. Until I learned about Jacob Zimmerman.

Zimmerman was the great-great-grandfather of someone I know. And a survivor of Andersonville and the Sultana. That lit a fire under me to get the novel written.

Jacob Zimmerman was born in Germany and came to the U.S at age 27. He was so proud when he became a naturalized citizen that he framed and hung his citizenship papers on the wall of his home.

At age 44, he enlisted with the 115th Ohio Volunteers, and left his wife Catherine to care for their six children.

After nearly four months in Andersonville Prison, he was one of 2,000 former prisoners loaded on the Sultana. When the boat exploded and he saw the chaos in the river of men pulling one another down to try to save themselves, he stayed aboard as long as the flames allowed. When he finally went into the water, he took a small plank to help him stay afloat. He eventually joined three other men clinging to a bale of hay. Rescued at daylight about five miles downriver, he had spent the night in freezing water.

Jacob returned home to his family, and he and his wife added three more children. He lived to the age of 97.

My book isn’t about Jacob, but he was my inspiration.

Y is for Youth

by Kim Van Sickler

[Kim's posts will all relate to her MG historical fiction novel with a paranormal twist: Muleskinner. Here's the pitch: An extraordinary canal dog gives twelve-year-old mule driver, Clay, the conviction to fight against a highly suspect Indenture agreement his pa supposedly signed...right before Pa was found swinging from a tree above Lonesome Lock.]

During the Ohio Canal era (1825-1913) boys were trained young to guide the mules along the towpath trail running from Cleveland (Lake Erie) to Portsmouth, a distance of more than 300 miles. Not all freighters traveled that distance. Many canal boats routinely worked smaller segments of the canal, like my muleskinner Clay, who traveled from Cleveland to Akron and back again, the boat he worked for carrying finished goods south and raw materials north.


Many muleskinners were teenage boys. They learned the trade early, before they hit their double digits. Clay started helping with the mules when he was six and by the time he was twelve had a number of years of full-time mule driving under his belt. 

All that hard work at such a young age could age a boy quickly. If he even survived at all.

X is for Xenophobia

by  Kim Van Sickler

[Kim's posts will all relate to her MG historical fiction novel with a paranormal twist: Muleskinner. Here's the pitch: An extraordinary canal dog gives twelve-year-old mule driver, Clay, the conviction to fight against a highly suspect Indenture agreement his pa supposedly signed...right before Pa was found swinging from a tree above Lonesome Lock.]

The Ohio Canal where my muleskinner travels on foot leading his mules was inspired after the Erie Canal running through Pennsylvania and New York. It was constructed by many of the same Irish and German immigrants. These men worked all day long for about 30 cents AND a ration of whiskey. With make-shift pockets of German and Irish workers springing up along the canal, cultural, religious, and ethnic differences were magnified. Many "Americans" resented the influx of so many foreigners because it threatened the established order. Catholic Irish seemed to bear the brunt of xenophobia from the Protestant majority. Stereotypes of Irish as whiskey-swilling, hot-headed, dirt poor potato-eaters were rooted in the plight of the Irish at that time. German Catholics were also viewed with distrust by many.

In fact, religion was the impetus for the formation of the No Nothing Party in the 1850s. The party's creation was an attempt to keep German and Irish Catholics out of government for fear that their religion was antithetic to republican values and a thinly disguised political agenda to allow the Roman pope to control American politics. A short-lived party, operating at peak membership levels between 1854-56, it was only open to Protestant males. 

Muleskinner takes place before the formation of the No Nothing Party, during a time when immigrants played a major part in working on the Ohio Canal. Clay, my muleskinner, and the family who takes him in to crew on their boat are Irish. The other characters Clay encounters are either Irish, German or English. Although the canalers themselves learned to deal with one another, directing their prejudices at times toward non-canalers or town jakes, they were surrounded by more settled people who viewed the newer arrivals with a mixture of uncertainty, misunderstanding, and fear. 

W is for WEST VIRGINIA

by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

(Kathy’s A to Z posts are tidbits of fact gleaned from her research for her historical-fiction novel LIKE A RIVER.)

When the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter in April, 1861, beginning the American Civil War, the United States was a nation divided. The state of Virginia was a state divided as well.

Western Virginia (known as the Trans-Allegheny Region) had already discussed becoming a separate state for a decade, but the plan failed to move forward.

The reasons for division within the state were chiefly economic. Western Virginia was a mountainous area of small farms. Unlike the aristocratic plantation owners in the rest of the state, Slavery was not an issue for these people.

When Virginia seceded from the Union, the westerners didn’t agree. They chose to remain loyal, and individual statehood was fast-tracked. An ordinance authorizing it was approved on October 24, 1861. The proposed state agreed to the gradual prohibition of Slavery in a constitution ratified in April, 1862.

On June 20, 1863, West Virginia was admitted as the 35th state. Many West Virginians fought in the Civil War, but not all of them fought for the Union. Even within the new state, divisions remained.

The Civil War ended nearly 150 years ago, but our nation will likely always have its differences. I’m grateful when we can discuss those differences rather than battle over them.

V is for VICKSBURG

by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

(Kathy’s A to Z posts are tidbits of fact gleaned from her research for her historical-fiction novel LIKE A RIVER.)

Vicksburg, Mississippi was a port city on the Mississippi River at the time of the Civil War. (The river now flows a little more to the west of it.)

In the Union’s mission to control the Mississippi, Vicksburg was the last obstacle. The city’s elevated location on a ridge above the river made it hard to penetrate. After several failed attempts of fighting from points on the river, the Union Army tramped miles inland across swampland to invade from the east and south.

Vicksburg fell on July 4, 1863 (one day after the Battle of Gettysburg).

www.sonofthesouth.net

In the story of the steamboat Sultana (see S post), the doomed trip began at Vicksburg. While she was docked there, it was recommended that one of her four boilers be replaced. To save time and avoid losing passengers to other steamboats, the boiler was merely patched.

It was at Vicksburg that the boat was overloaded to more than five times its intended capacity. The Sultana traveled north in her overburdened condition, making stops in Helena, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee. About seven miles north of Memphis, she met her fate. It was under a black sky, at about 2AM, when the boilers blew, sending hundreds to a watery grave. Nearly 1,800 passengers lost their lives in what remains the worst U.S maritime disaster.

www.cityofart.net

U is for UNDERAGE SOLDIERS

by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

(Kathy’s A to Z posts are tidbits of fact gleaned from her research for her historical-fiction novel LIKE A RIVER.)

LIKE A RIVER tells about two Civil War soldiers, both fighting for the Union, both fifteen at the time they enlist.

Leander and Paul are fictional characters, but records indicate that about 100,000 Union soldiers were fifteen and under. Another 100,000 were only sixteen. The number who lied about their ages and weren’t caught will never be known.

Confederate records aren’t as reliable, but the number is believed to be even higher.

Many young boys were used as drummers or buglers, which did not keep them away from battle. Other young soldiers fought (and died) alongside their older counterparts in the front lines.

Can you remember being fifteen? Would you have been ready to fight for your country?

T is for Tiller

by Kim Van Sickler

[Kim's posts will all relate to her MG historical fiction novel with a paranormal twist: Muleskinner. Here's the pitch: An extraordinary canal dog gives twelve-year-old mule driver, Clay, the conviction to fight against a highly suspect Indenture agreement his pa supposedly signed...right before Pa was found swinging from a tree above Lonesome Lock.]

The tiller on the Ohio canal boats was in the back of the boat (the stern). It connected to the rudder. Depending on which way the tiller was maneuvered impacted the boat's direction. The steersman operated the tiller, and frequently was the captain of the boat. Propulsion happened on the front of the boat, courtesy of a team of mules hitched in tandem and walking next to the canal on the towpath (footpath).



The hardest part of steering the canal boat was locking through. Between Cleveland and Akron alone there were 44 locks. Locks were the water boxes that either filled or emptied of water and allowed the boat to rise to go upstream or lower to go downstream. The locks were much narrower than the rest of the canal, and required good steering skills to enter and exit gracefully, without knocking the boat against the canal's sandstone walls.

In Muleskinner, Cap'n Loomis Sheridan is captain and primary steersman of the Bonnie Lass. His tortured relationship with 12-year-old orphan Clay Muleskinner undergoes an overhaul during the course of the book.

S is for SULTANA

 by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

(Kathy’s A to Z posts are tidbits of fact gleaned from her research for her historical-fiction novel LIKE A RIVER.)

As the Civil War neared an end, the Confederacy moved prisoners from Andersonville and released them into Union hands. After Lee’s surrender, those men and released prisoners from Alabama’s Cahaba Prison were loaded onto the steamboat Sultana to be sent north. At long last, the horror was over—or so they thought.

The Sultana was built to carry 376 passengers and a crew of 85. After civilian passengers had boarded, the released prisoners were loaded onto the decks until the weight of the men caused the floors to sag. Posts were brought in to shore up the floor, and more men boarded.

The U.S. government paid steamboat lines for each soldier they carried, which provided incentive to carry as many as possible. The final number was around 2,500.

Around 2:00 AM on April 27, 1865, the boat’s boilers exploded. The explosion, its fire, the boilers’ scalding water, and drowning in the Mississippi killed nearly 1,800—more than would die on the Titanic fifty years later.

After hearing those staggering numbers, I wondered why I had never previously heard about the Sultana (which was built in my home city of Cincinnati). The news in April, 1865, announced the end of the bloodiest war in U.S. history, the assassination of President Lincoln, and the search for and death of assassin John Wilkes Booth. The deaths on the Sultana just weren’t considered the most important news of the day. It was a story I had to write.

R is for RATIONS

by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

(Kathy’s A to Z posts are tidbits of fact gleaned from her research for her historical-fiction novel LIKE A RIVER.)

In the early days of Andersonville Prison, rations for the prisoners were meager. At first, cornmeal and meat were doled out, but since cooking utensils and firewood were scarce, many had no way to cook the meat or bake bread from the meal. A cookhouse was set up, but as new prisoners were brought in, some days only half the camp was fed.

Eventually, large slabs of cornbread were baked and brought into the camp once a day. Sometimes bacon was also given out. However, flies that landed in the bread dough were baked into the bread. Many times, cob was ground up with the corn and baked into this daily ration. It caused severe inflammation in the prisoners’ stomachs.

cornbread

As Union troops invaded the South, destroying crops and burning warehouses, food became scarce for Confederate soldiers and Southern civilians. Prisoners’ daily ration of cornbread became smaller and smaller. Scurvy (caused by malnutrition) was rampant, and many starved to death.

Overall, military rations during the Civil War were lacking. Hardtack was the go-to when other rations grew scarce. Hardtack was a hard, cracker-like biscuit, and it was not uncommon to find it infested with insects. I saw a piece of hardtack (vaguely resembling a Pop-Tart) in a museum in 1996. It had survived since the Civil War.

two different styles of hardtack

But military rations have never been something to rave about. My USMC son showed me the MRE’s (Meals-Ready-to-Eat) they eat in the field. Military life still isn’t easy.

Q is for Quin O'Toole

by Kim Van Sickler

[Kim's posts will all relate to her MG historical fiction novel with a paranormal twist: Muleskinner. Here's the pitch: An extraordinary canal dog gives twelve-year-old mule driver, Clay, the conviction to fight against a highly suspect Indenture agreement his pa supposedly signed...right before Pa was found swinging from a tree above Lonesome Lock.]

Quin O'Toole. Nickname: Goose

Quin is already dead when Muleskinner starts. He was a canaler married to the prettiest woman on the Ohio Canal before she died birthing their second child: Aidan. A happy go-lucky fellow by nature, his fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse when he got ensnared in Slice Fermer's gambling enterprise. Before his body was found hanging over Lonesome Lock, an indentured servitude agreement had been signed, promising his son Aidan would work for Slice as his muleskinner when the boy turned ten years old.

Quin's unfortunate past haunts Clay. It's up to Clay to straighten out what his father fell victim to and set himself free. 

P is for PROVIDENCE SPRING

by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

(Kathy’s A to Z posts are tidbits of fact gleaned from her research for her historical-fiction novel LIKE A RIVER.)

When Andersonville prison camp was first constructed, it contained a branch of Sweetwater Creek. That creek was to be used by the prisoners for their every need: drinking, bathing, washing clothes and cooking utensils—and waste.

Wood “sinks” were built along one edge of the creek for men to empty their bowels directly into what was also the source of their drinking water. Before long, the stream became a contaminated, foul-smelling swamp that attracted flies by day and mosquitoes at night. The diseases spread throughout the camp from this creek were innumerable.

In August, 1864, a torrential downpour flooded the creek, which made matters worse—for a time.

When the flood water receded, it revealed a spring which bubbled from an underground aquifer too deep to have been contaminated by the stream. The prisoners proclaimed the water was clean and tasted sweeter than any water they had tasted in a long time.

But the spring sat on the wrong side of the dead line (see post for D). After contriving ways to reach the water with buckets tied to poles, some prisoners felt clean water was worth risking their lives for. Eventually, they were allowed to dig a reservoir for the spring to flow into, and men could drink clean water without fear of being shot.

The spring, which many attributed to a divine hand, was named Providence Spring. It still flows at the site of the prison. However the water is no longer safe to drink.

O is for Ohio Canal

by Kim Van Sickler

[Kim's posts will all relate to her MG historical fiction novel with a paranormal twist: Muleskinner. Here's the pitch: An extraordinary canal dog gives twelve-year-old mule driver, Clay, the conviction to fight against a highly suspect Indenture agreement his pa supposedly signed...right before Pa was found swinging from a tree above Lonesome Lock.]

In 1825 the Ohio legislature authorized the construction of the Ohio Canal (now known as the Ohio & Erie Canal). The idea originated from the new and prospering Erie Canal running through NY and PA. Goods would arrive via Lake Erie to Cleveland and get shipped south through the length of Ohio to Portsmouth, a distance of a little over 300 miles. Raw materials like coal, quarry stone, and crops would be shipped back north. Thanks to the canal, Cleveland and Akron, little nothing towns, blossomed. The Canal era petered out in 1913 with the Great Flood, the nail in the coffin of a dying transportation industry, thanks to the faster, more efficient railroads.

The earliest known photo of the Ohio Canal, taken circa 1859 in the East Flats section of Cleveland.

N is for Nicknames

by Kim Van Sickler

[Kim's posts will all relate to her MG historical fiction novel with a paranormal twist: Muleskinner. Here's the pitch: An extraordinary canal dog gives twelve-year-old mule driver, Clay, the conviction to fight against a highly suspect Indenture agreement his pa supposedly signed...right before Pa was found swinging from a tree above Lonesome Lock.]

Canalers and places on the Ohio Canal frequently developed nicknames. For instance Captain Pearl Nye, a canaler who later wrote and performed stories and songs about life on The Silver Ribbon (nickname for the Ohio Canal), was known as Skinny. The locks the canal boats passed through developed their own colorful nicknames as well. Some of my favorites that I worked into Muleskinner are: Lonesome Lock, Black Dog Crossing, Johnny Cake Lock, and Whiskey Lock.

Captain Pearl Nye, nicknamed Skinny

Lonesome Lock circa 1892

Many of my Muleskinner characters have nicknames as well. Clay, my muleskinner (slang for a mule driver) is Bird, a name he was given that he hopes refers to how he sings rather than, as he suspects, his scrawny build. Gloomy and dark Cap'n Loomis Sheridan was nicknamed Mossy by his younger brother, Owen. The name derives from a shortening of the slang term moss-backed, which meant drunk. Owen never calls Cap'n Mossy to his face, however. And Cap'n Sheridan refers to his bushy-haired younger brother Owen, the bowman, as Whiskers, when he's irritated with him. 

I embraced the nickname culture when writing Muleskinner. I couldn't resist!

M is for Muleskinner

by Kim Van Sickler

[Kim's posts will all relate to her MG historical fiction novel with a paranormal twist: Muleskinner. Here's the pitch: An extraordinary canal dog gives twelve-year-old mule driver, Clay, the conviction to fight against a highly suspect Indenture agreement his pa supposedly signed...right before Pa was found swinging from a tree above Lonesome Lock.]

A muleskinner is a person who drives mules. Back in the Ohio Canal era (1825-1913) a team of 2-3 mules were hitched in tandem (one behind the other) to pull canal boats (freighters) filled with supplies from any combination of distances between Portsmouth (south) to Cleveland (north), about 310 miles. 

Muleskinner walking beside his mules

 In my book Muleskinner, Clay has been helping drive mules for the freighter Bonnie Lass for six years already. At twelve years old, he is now a seasoned mule driver. He spends all day on his feet tending to the mules or walking with them. His biggest concerns are the condition of the mules, the weather, and the waits to lock through at the areas where the water level has to be either raised or lowered so boats can proceed either upstream or downstream. It's a physically grueling, frequently boring, oftentimes dangerous life. 

Did you know that President James Garfield worked as a muleskinner on the Ohio Canal? After he fell in the water for the 14th time, he developed a malaria-like sickness (referred to as the ague) that forced him to retire from the canals. His quality of life drastically improved once he did!

L is for LIKE A RIVER

by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

LIKE A RIVER is the title of my Civil War novel (due out in Spring, 2015, from Calkins Creek, an imprint of Highlights). The theme of water threads through the story, and four rivers are mentioned in it by name (Ohio, Coosa, Kanawha, and Mississippi), but it is not really about rivers.

Mississippi River near Memphis.

Though the rivers play a necessary, but minor, role in my novel, the title comes from that aspect of rivers to be ever-changing. And a river’s ability to change the lives of those around it.

The Mississippi becomes a watery grave for a large number of people in the story. (Check back in for the “S” post for more details on that.) But when searching for a title, I thought about the lives of my characters throughout the novel. In dialogue toward the end of the book, someone talks about how much the war changed Leander.

Another character’s response is, “Like a river.”

The publisher may decide on a different title for the book before publication. Something they feel is more marketable perhaps. That is their right. After all, things change—like a river.

K is for Keel

by Kim Van Sickler

[Kim's posts will all relate to her MG historical fiction novel with a paranormal twist: Muleskinner. Here's the pitch: An extraordinary canal dog gives twelve-year-old mule driver, Clay, the conviction to fight against a highly suspect Indenture agreement his pa supposedly signed...right before Pa was found swinging from a tree above Lonesome Lock.]

The keel is the structural member running lengthwise on a boat that attaches to the frame. Think of it as the boat's spine. It strengthens the boat's hull.

The keel converts sideways force into forward force. Diagram courtesy of Wikipedia.

The word might be the first English word ever written. A 6th Century British historian and cleric named Gildas used the word in his Latin sermon "De Exidio et Conquestu Britanniae". However he spelled keel "cyulae", and was referring to early Saxon ships.

In more fun with words, the Latin word for keel is "carina", and is where we get the term careen for the act of cleaning a keel and the hull, oftentimes by rolling the boat on its side.

From Jack Gieck's A Photo Album of Ohio's Canal Era 1825-1913 (describing the State of Ohio's first foray into the Ohio Canal in 1827.)
"With a grinding scudding cry from its keel, Ohio's first canal boat slid sideways down the slanting ways and splashed broadside into the canal--inundating the opposite bank with a small tidal wave."

J is for Johnny Cake

by Kim Van Sickler

[Kim's posts will all relate to her MG historical fiction novel with a paranormal twist: Muleskinner. Here's the pitch: An extraordinary canal dog gives twelve-year-old mule driver, Clay, the conviction to fight against a highly suspect Indenture agreement his pa supposedly signed...right before Pa was found swinging from a tree above Lonesome Lock.]

Johnny cake is fried flattened cornbread and was a staple of the old Ohio Canal.


The following johnny cake recipe appears in  whatsoookingamerica.com

Johnnycake Recipe

Recipe Type: Pancake, Brunch & Breakfast, Corn Bread
Cuisine: New England
Yields: 4 servings
Prep time: 10 min

Ingredients:

1 cup white cornmeal
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup milk [but canalers probably skipped this ingredient]
Bacon drippings

Preparation:

In a medium bowl, place cornmeal and salt.

In a medium saucepan over high heat, bring water to a rapid boil; remove from heat. With the saucepan in one hand, let the boiling water dribble onto the cornmeal while stirring constantly with the other hand. Then stir the milk into the mixture (it will be fairly thick, but not runny).

Generously grease a large, heavy frying pan (I like to use my cast-iron frying pan) with the bacon drippings and heat. When pan is hot, drop the batter by spoonfuls. Flatten the batter with a spatula to a thickness of approximately 1/4 inch. Fry until golden brown, turn, and brown on the other side (adding more bacon drippings as needed).

Serve hot with butter, maple syrup, or applesauce.

Makes 4 servings.

The name johnny cake may originate from journey cakes, so called because they could be made ahead of time and packed for trips. Or they might be the slurred derivative of Shawnee cakes, a recipe the Indians shared with the Pilgrims. Still another school of thought is that the word comes from the American Indian word for corn cake or "janiken".

Lock #27, Johnny Cake Lock, Ohio Canal

Lock number 27 on the old Ohio Canal is nicknamed Johnny Cake Lock because at one time at least one canal boat not well stocked with food was stuck in the mud there for days. The passengers had nothing to eat during that time but johnny cakes.