JOHN BASIL TURCHIN AND THE FIGHT TO FREE THE SLAVES

BUY THIS BOOK

My editor was as surprised as I was that such a wonderful story had not been written. But Turchin was Russian (more precisely, a Ukrainian Cossack) and there was a time, not so long ago in America, when Russian contributions to America were not of interest. Ironically, every Soviet student learned in school during the Cold War about John Basil Turchin and his contributions to America. But there was more to the absence of historical memory of Turchin than twentieth century politics. This also had to do with the selective memory of the war through which our nation reunited afterwards. While scholars have thoroughly discredited the Lost Cause myth, the continuing fight for Civil War memory had relegated Turchin to a role as one of the “whipping boys” of the Lost Cause adherents.

Turchin and his war experience tells us much about the important aspect of the politics of the early period of the American Civil War. He was an experienced Czarist military officer, who came to America in search of democracy. Turchin was as experienced as any West Point graduate in the Union Army, but without the ties of friendship with Southern graduates of West Point. He cared little for the clique of West Point officers and, in particular, the sense that care should be taken to not offend the Southern aristocracy or to interfere with their property, including human slaves. A bold Union advance into the heart of Dixie in early 1862 placed Turchin and his men into combat during a time in which politicians and political generals were managing the conduct of the war. This campaign also allowed Turchin and his men the opportunity to see slavery with their own eyes and understand that the war was about far more than simply restoring the Union. Turchin helped to bring both matters of debate before the nation by his actions and words.

I respect men of principle and Turchin was such a man. He ignored threats and finally faced court-martial for his actions. Turchin’s trial, the national attention focused upon that trial and the ultimate implications of the outcome in the months prior to the Lincoln’s issuing his Emancipation Proclamation, make Turchin a necessary part of the history of the American Civil War. This is augmented by the reality that command decisions by Turchin were pivotal in two of the most important battles of the war; Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge.

The Civil War freed not only the slaves, but also the United States of America from the hypocrisy of slavery in a republic dedicated to freedom. Men like Turchin fought for the nation, not the North. Frederic Douglass, the great fighter for emancipation, was saying as early as 1871, “We are sometimes asked in the name of patriotism to forget the merits of this fearful struggle …”. John Basil Turchin’s story is a reminder of why the war was fought.

BUY THIS BOOK

I am fascinated by the Confederate memory in Texas. I was in the Texan hamlet of Chappell Hill (between Houston and Austin) one weekend for their annual Scarecrow Festival and happened to wander through the old Masonic Cemetery. As a student of the Civil War, I was struck by the number of graves of Confederate veterans, the many different units in which they served and the broad human experience of that conflict represented in the small graveyard. This led to extensive research and, ultimately, this interesting story of Chappell Hill and its people as a microcosm of the human experience of the war from the proud Texan perspective. I utilized a number of diaries, unpublished memoirs, correspondence collections and photos to convey that sense in intimate detail. The setting allowed me an opportunity to use that same intimate detail to convey a sense of the post-war period, including Reconstruction, the Federal defeat and withdrawal and the rise of the South’s Lost Cause myth. The book covers the gradual evolution of national memory from slavery as the cause of the war, which cost our nation half a million dead, to focusing on the honor of those who fought on the battlefield. The end result was that sectional reconciliation between North and South gradually replaced the racial reconciliation, which one might have hoped would result from the emancipation of the slaves. That process of racial reconciliation, as we know too well, is yet underway, having been needlessly delayed by one hundred years.

I honor the bravery of the American fighting man - in this case, the men of Chappell Hill , Texas – but have taken care to not obscure the issue of slavery as the major underlying cause of the war. We should never forget to make a sharp distinction between the politicians and other men of power, who bring war to a nation, and the brave warriors, who fight their war for them. History is important as a means to understand how we, as a nation, became who we are today. The Confederates of Chappell Hill hopefully sheds some new light on this important period of American history, both in terms of the causes and the consequences. This book was not meant to glorify war. The suffering of war far outweighs any glory. But it is important that we understand what happened and perhaps gain some insight to the psyche of these proud Americans, who suffered defeat and rejoined the nation.

Reviews:
Book Review from November 2005 issue of America’s Civil War 

The saga of a Southern community driven from boom to bust by the war is not unfamiliar, but The Confederates of Chappell Hill, Texas by Stephen Chicoine benefits from an opulent infusion of contemporary evidence never before published.  This makes Chicoine’s story worthwhile … A fine chapter on the home-front experience cites 17 manuscript sources … The five chapters devoted primarily to the exploits of Chappell Hill’s 5^th Texas troops probably will appeal to most Civil War readers.  Twenty war-dated letters, written by three men, printed in pleasingly long block quotes, buttress the story of the 5^th Texas’ experiences … Chicoine also supplies a gratifying volume of contemporary evidence from periodicals, most of them published in Houston or Galveston … Confederates of Chappell Hill, Texas throws new light on some of the most famous moments in the annals of Hood’s Texas Brigade and the Army of Northern Virginia … Numerous excellent photographs, many of soldiers in uniform, illustrate Confederates of Chappell Hill, Texas … the book is surely worth the tariff. 

• Robert K. Krick, former chief historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Site, author of fourteen books on the Civil War and past winner of the Douglas Southall Freeman award for the best book on Southern History. 

FROM THE ASHES, VOL. 6 MAY 1945 AND AFTER

BUY THIS BOOK

I have come to know a number of Holocaust survivors over the years. Their stories of tragedy and sorrow during the war and the scramble for survival after the war are difficult to erase from one’s psyche. The publisher approached me to write this book, part of a series, as a result of the Ona Simaite story in my Lithuania book and my subsequent work on a biography of Simaite’s life (yet to be published after all these years). The writing of that book was an intense experience for me. While the Holocaust is a dark period in the history of the human experience, it is also a story of the ultimate triumph of good over evil. This book honors the heroism and also allows us to reflect upon the past in the hope that this never will happen again. I am proud to have a book, which I wrote, sold at the Holocaust Museum in Washington , D.C.

A TIBETAN FAMILY (JOURNEY BETWEEN TWO WORLDS)

BUY THIS BOOK

I happened to be in Lhasa , Tibet on October 1, 1987 , Chinese National Day. This was a year-and-a-half before the tragic Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing . A group of Tibetan monks demonstrated in Lhasa ’s central square, shouting pro-independence slogans and crying out against the Chinese occupation of their land and the genocide of their people and culture. Chinese security arrested the monks, after which time a large crowd of Tibetans took over the square, setting fire to some police vehicles and surrounding the police station on the square. The crowd stormed the building, set fire to it and managed to free some of the monks held inside. I subsequently witnessed a month of crackdown by the Chinese authorities. I also heard numerous terrifying stories, as I was accompanying a scholar who spoke Tibetan fluently. Few experiences could more clearly remind one how dear democracy and freedom are to mankind. That Tibetan experience led to my subsequent involvement over a period of years with the International Campaign for Tibet and, ultimately, spending three days with the Dalai Lama in Houston on a visit, which I helped arrange and facilitate. I wrote this book in attempt to raise consciousness among young Americans as to the tragedy of the Tibetan experience. The underlying theme, as with many of my writings, is America as the land of freedom and a refuge for the oppressed.

A LIBERIAN FAMILY (A JOURNEY BETWEEN TWO WORLDS)

BUY THIS BOOK

It is not possible to live in Houston or Minneapolis, particularly if one is Christian, and not come to know Africans. The story of Liberia, related as it is to the history of race in America, particularly intrigued me. I came to know this wonderful family in the course of writing this book. Once again, this is a story intended to impress upon American youth the sense of America as a land of freedom and refuge for the oppressed.