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1824: The Arkansas War (The Trail of Glory)

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Eric Flint covers a period of time that is very often ignored by others in the field of alternate history. His first book in this series, 1814: The Rivers of War and now this one, 1824: The Arkansas War is a period that has often been forgotten with there being a greater emphasis on the American Revolution, the Civil War and World Wars One and Two. It is a rich period with some of the most fascinating characters from the pages of our American History Books and Eric Flint has done his research. This series surpasses his excellent 1632 plus novels and he has proven himself a true master in this genre.

Unlikely as the idea may seem to some, there is a second republic in North America thanks to the efforts of Sam Houston and Patrick Driscol as described in the first book. Arkansas is a confederacy made up of pioneers like Houston, Native American tribes and African Americans. The latter group makes up the majority and includes both freedmen and escaped slaves. The big issue is slavery and how a slave free republic with black leaders would influence the United States. It is ultimately what leads to war.

While the author spends ample time on ordinary citizens it is the leading figures of the day that will attract the reader and how the author uses excellent insights to explore the character of each. Especially strong are the portrayals of John Quincy Adams, John Brown, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Clay, William Henry Harrison, Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson, James Monroe, Winfield Scott and Zackary Taylor. The political interaction among these great names is as fascinating as the reader would desire and makes the military campaigns described almost an after thought. Don't worry, there is plenty of miliary action and strategy if that is your cup of tea. There is also attention paid to social issues outside of slavery with religion being given fair coverage.

The l632 series established Eric Flint as the new master of alternate world history and this series will solidify it for generations to come. It makes me wish I was still teaching history full time as these books would be required reading.

Flint blew apart most of my vague assumptions about this period that generally gets a hurried treatment on most histories that focus on wartimes. The characters are richly drawn and fit what I've read of the actual ones while brought to life as funny, passionate, puzzled, and struggling folks. The storylines are reasonable, but surprising, so racing to see how they unfold is a severe temptation with a book that deserves to be savored. There's a lot here, even more than I found in rereading the first book "Rivers of War" and it shows you what could have been just as Houston's defense of the capitol and other choices did. It's a superb book full of fun, struggle, surprises, reluctant heroes and few villains (other than John C. Calhoun of S.Carolina who comes off badly so many times in 19th Century history he's one of the great "wreckers", precipitating the Civil War probably more than any one other person...Calhoun's a natural pivot point for any alternative history and Henry Clay's ambiguities with great skill make an even better one. Well worth the hardcover price (always a pain for fiction) and as the other reviewers comment, this might be Flint's best book yet and he's consistently very,very good.

Set about 10 years after the events portrayed in Flint's book, 1812, this alternative history picks up with Nation of Arkansas, a nation that has been carved out of the Arkansas and Oklahoma territories and offers a new life for freed slaves and many Native American tribes being pushed out of the Eastern United States. It has a large, well-trained army, which, when Arkansas Post is attacked, defends it well. This event kicks off turmoil in the US as the newspapers and politicians rant about the `aggressive blacks' across the river and how they must be taught a lesson. Will there be a war? Will the US eradicate the young nation?

Notes:
This book does not stand alone. You need to read 1812 first.

Sam Houston, the focus of the first book doesn't play as large of a role in this one. There was not as much character development in this story.

There is more exposition in this book and less action.

In the first book, 1812, Flint spends some time presenting the plight of the Native Americans in the face of a relentless push by the United States to claim the entire continent. The social emphasis of this sequel, however, is the plight of the African slaves, their lack of human rights, property and respect as fellow humans. I found it to be a good reminder of the horrors of slavery and the status of Africans (I'm not sure one can call them African-AMERICANS at that time, since they weren't granted citizenship or any other rights. They were slaves without a country ... but I digress.) The author isn't preachy, he weaves the information into the story quite well.

All in all, I did not feel that this sequel matched the first volume in pace, plot or character development, but it was worth the time to read it.

1824: The Arkansas War (2006) is the second in the American Frontier series, following 1812: The Rivers of War. In the previous volume, the British crossed the river and attacked Morgan's Line on the west bank. After initial success, they are defeated by Houston's infantry, the Cherokees and Driscol's battery. The untried freeman of the Iron Battalion stood against everything the British threw at them. Pakenham realized that Jackson would have slaughtered his men on Chalmette field and soon returned the troops to their ships. Shortly thereafter, news of the peace treaty ended the current hostilities.

In this novel, some time later, a Creole grandee had one of Driscol's freemen castrated for drawing the attention of a quadroon demoiselle. So Driscol mustered the Iron Battalion and led them into the French quarter, where they hung every slavecatcher in the vicinity. Then Driscol ordered the death of the high-handed grandee.

When the Louisiana militia came to put down the "servile insurrection", Driscol had them raked with grapeshot; this massacre was later called the Battle of Algiers. Then Driscol led the withdrawal of free blacks to the Arkansas territory. There he joined with the Indians in that region and formed a mixed confederation.

Now Patrick Driscol is the "Laird" of the Arkansas Chiefdom, which is the strongest province in the new republic. The capital of this confederation is New Antrim, also called Little Rock by the Indians and Driscoltown by the blacks. This confederation welcomes settlers of any race, including runaway slaves. The politicians in the Southern states are strident in their demands that this practice be stopped, but the slaves, freemen, Indians and even whites keep migrating to Arkansas.

Sam Houston was appointed as the special commissioner for Indian affairs shortly after the war ended and has been the son-in-law of President Monroe since 1819. As the Hero of the Capitol, he was one of the most eligible bachelors in Washington, but he married Maria Hester Monroe after a nationally famous whirlwind courtship. She had been only seventeen at the time, yet he had been only twenty-six years old himself.

Houston had been somewhat of a womanizer prior to the marriage but settled down afterwards. He even cut down on his drinking at home, especially after the birth of their son. Of course, he still drank in the taverns and on his many trips to Arkansas and other Indian areas.

Richard Mentor Johnson is a Kentucky Senator and a good friend of Andrew Jackson. Johnson is also notorious for living with a black woman and having two acknowledged daughters with her. Houston drops by to visit their farm on his way to the Hermitage.

After telling Johnson some disappointing news, Houston offers an Army escort for Miss Julia and his daughters in their travel to a school in New Antrim. Houston later asks Lieutenant-Colonel Zachary Taylor to provide this escort. As an old friend of the family, Taylor takes the duty himself rather than delegating it.

Upon reaching Memphis, Taylor finds the situation on the Mississippi River to be bad enough that he is reluctant to continue. He tries to talk Miss Julia into staying in Memphis, but she refuses. Her offer to inscribe his dispatches to Washington finally settles the matter and they continue on to New Antrim.

In this story, General Winfield Scott provides a briefing on Arkansas River fortifications to President Monroe and Secretary of State Adams. Then they discuss the probable results of the forthcoming election in the United States. The consensus of the meeting is that no candidate will obtain a majority in the Electoral College. Since Henry Clay is Speaker of the House of Representatives, he will surely win any vote in that chamber. This evaluation gives them a lot to think about.

Meanwhile, Robert Crittenden comes into some extra funds and buys guns for his "army" of freebooters in New Orleans. They travel north up the Mississippi, torturing and killing any Indians that they find. Then Crittenden reaches the fort at Arkansas Post.

This story also tells of the return of former British Major General Robert Ross to North America for a visit with his old enemy Patrick Driscol. This time Ross brings his wife and eldest son with him. They are warmly welcomed in New Antrim.

This story also tells of the flight of a group of freemen expelled from Baltimore under the exclusion act. This group runs into a band of slavecatchers, who welcome the opportunity to burn their papers and sell them as slaves. But then John Brown and his brothers happen on the scene and make a strong impression on the slavecatchers. The surviving slavers run for their lives.

John Brown also makes a strong impression on the young black Sheffield Parker. The Parker family continues on to New Antrim, where Sheff and his Uncle Jem become soldiers in the Arkansas army. John Brown refuses to join any army -- too much cursing -- but he is willing to settle by the junction of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers and to shoot any slavecatchers that come along.

After Henry Clay is sworn in as President, his administration's agenda is dictated mostly by the Southern states. John C. Calhoun becomes the Secretary of War and promptly orders the US Army to invade the Arkansas Confederacy. Since Driscol has been expecting this war for several years, the invasion is not quite as easy as the Clay administration expects. Young Sheff Parker emerges as a hero in this conflict.

This novel starts out with violence and works its way up to war. Yet this invasion up the Arkansas River is much smaller and shorter than the Civil War in our timeline. Still, the next volume may well relate a continuing and more widespread war.

Highly recommended for Flint fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of the American frontier during the early nineteenth century, with many of the heroes and villains of that era, yet without the Trail of Tears.

-Arthur W. Jordin

"1824: The Arkansas War", is the second volume of Eric Flint's interesting, enjoyable, and emminently-readable "Rivers of War" saga (and follow-up to "1812: Rivers of War"). In this saga, it is the author's intention to create an alternate history of the United States by which the Trail of Tears (the forced relocation of the Cherokee, Creek and other native tribes from the Southeast United States to Oklahoma) of 1838 could be avoided. Since he could see no reasonable way by which these tribes would keep their lands east of the Mississippi, he instead chose to create a scenario by which they willingly agree to the move decades sooner when they still maintained much of their wealth and power. The end result is another fast-paced read that is highly recommended to anyone who enjoys alternative history and, in fact, to anyone who enjoys American history since this book not only includes fascinating real characters of American and World history but shows a very real and believable scenario that could well have occurred but for the path of a single arrow.

The action in the book picks up in 1824, approximately 10 years after the first volume ends. Due to the efforts of Colonel (and special commissioner of Indian Affairs) Sam Houston, who, thanks to a quirk of fate and a slightly re-directed arrow, was only lightly wounded at the 1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend (rather than grievously so as happened in reality), a new sovereign country exists in North America. Via a treaty negotiated by Houston, the Cherokees, Creeks and other native American tribes of the Southeast U.S. willingly agreed to cede their lands east of the Mississippi to land-hungry settlers in United States in exchange for sovereign land west of the Mississippi, approximately encompassing the current states of Arkansas and Oklahoma. This new land, called the Arkansas Confederacy consists of several chiefdoms settled and run by each of the various tribes, except for the easternmost chiefdom, which is run by a former junior officer (and, previously, a former drill sgt under Winfield Scott) and fellow hero of the War of 1812, Patrick Driscoll. Driscoll, with the assistance of several black soldiers from his former unit, has created a chiefdom where all people are accepted regardless of the color of their skin and regardless of whether somebody in the United States may have considered them to be "property". In addition to a number of native americans from the various southern tribes, Driscoll's chiefdom quickly becomes a haven for both freed blacks and runaway slaves of the United States.

Driscoll is smart enough to realize the difficulty of his situation. He was purposely given the easternmost chiefdom to serve as a buffer between the Native Americans and the United States. However, after only 10 years, the new Arkansas Confederacy was already causing great consternation, especially among southerners. Not only did this territory include some land that would be great for cotton plantations (which, of course, would be worked by southerners using black slaves), but it was also becoming a temptation for slaves everywhere, who need only find their way across the Mississippi to be both free and part of a truly accepting society where they could have all of the same rights and responsibilities that white Americans took for granted. Driscoll understands, even more than the most hawkish Americans, that war is inevitable and is doing everything in his power to ensure that his new nation will be ready when the clash begins.

The action proceeds to follow a fascinating yet believeable course toward "The Arkansas War" that gives the book its name. A number of noted Americans, including not only the previously mentioned Sam Houston and Winfield Scott, but also James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William Cullen Bryant and Zachary Taylor not to mention British General Robert Ross (who was killed in real life in front of Baltimore in 1814, but, in this history, survives to retire to England and become an abolitionist), have critical and believable roles as this saga unfolds. I won't spoil the details, but, if you love history and/or enjoy a good novel, you will not be able to put this one down.

I did not care all that much for RIVERS OF WAR, the previous book in this story line, but I really enjoyed this one. Even so, it does help to have read the first volume because this one is based upon story lines developed there.

A new nation exists in North America. It is a confederacy of Indian tribes set up in the region of Arkansas and Oklahoma. It was set up by tribes from the southern US who were fleeing land hungry Americans and was the brainchild of Sam Houston with help from Andrew Jackson and other notables of the time. This confederacy has one extra element, though, which is the main focus of the story. One of the "tribes" consists primarily of escaped slaves and freedmen. This naturally leads to tension with the US.

Agitators in the US such as John Calhoun and Henry Clay have a vested political interest in quashing the fledgling confederacy. Others, such as John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and James Monroe do not. Most notable among those who are against destroying the confederacy are the confederacy themselves. They do not want to be quashed.

The confederacy has several things going for it. It has a very capable army of eager volunteers. It has the help and advice of a British general. It has a very determined Irishman for a commander and, just as important, it has an enemy that does not take them seriously.

This looks to be the first of several books dealing with this war that never was. I hope so.

It's been a decade since the War of 1812, and the 'solution' to the American Indian problem that Sam Houston dreamed up is coming unraveled. The new Republic of Arkansas has become a destination for runaway slaves and freedmen, who now make up more of its population than do the Indians. And the fertile bottomland along the Arkansas River, is a tempting prize for slave-owning whites. Even Houston's longtime mentor, Andrew Jackson, warns Houston that he can't hold back the tide. Hoping to create a nationalistic fervor, Henry Clay and other leaders fund a raid by white filibusterers. Even if they're defeated by the mostly-black army of Arkansas, they won't be missed and many Americans will call out for vengence.

In our own history, the election of 1824 was split between Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay. Adams and Clay reached a deal in Congress, with Adams becoming the new President. In this alternate history, the massacre in Arkansas territory tilted the election to Clay--but at the cost of him selling out to the pro-slavery forces of the deep south.

Author Eric Flint continues the story he begain in THE RIVERS OF FIRE. Although the American Indian issue remains, the question of slavery, which had already become a running wound in the young Republic, was brought to a head by the existance of a militarily strong Black Nation in its midst.

Flint uses a variety of historical figures--starting with Sam Houston who, in our history was badly wounded in the opening battles of the War of 1812, but in this universe became a popular military hero, but also including the young John Brown, John Quincy Adams, William Jennings Bryant, many others, as well as creating a variety of characters who never became known in our universe but who different circumstances cast to the fore in this.

1824: THE ARKANSAS WAR is very strong alternate history. Flint uses his alternate history to shed a different light on our own history. The process of manifest destiny worked its way out largely through filibustering rufians (at best) as much as through high-minded patriotism. And the question of slavery was a deep injury to our nation long before it cast us into the most deadly war of our history. It's easy, as well, to see reflections on our current history as we embark again on illegal wars sold to the public with the idea that they will result in quick victory.

Certainly one can quibble with the history. Henry Clay is Flint's villain--and it isn't clear to me that the historical Clay is really accurately depicted. The alliance between Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson also seems a bit far-fetched, although if you buy the Clay picture, it certainly makes sense. And I like to think that even a minimally talented military officer like future-president William Harrison wouldn't have protected his flanks during an assault on a fortress. That said, however, 1824 is emotionally strong, an interesting and valid use of alternate history to shed a different light on the road our nation actually took in the past (and continues to take today), and one bang-up exciting story.

Eric Flint's second book in this foray into the world of alternate history carries the strength of 1812: The Rivers of War forward. Although the premise is improbable, Flint handles the leading figures of 1820's America forward remarkably well in addition to the characters of his own invention. It does feel a little drawn out in parts (especially if you prefer battle scenes to the politics that tends to dominate the era), but moves at a good clip for the most part. The focus from the first book shifts more to the freedman's perspective in the new country of Arkansas as opposed to the Indian nations from the first book but doesn't feel as though it lacks anything. A good series that I hope Del Rey decides to continue.

The basic premise of alternate history books is to take a minor point or two and write a novel about how history might have changed. In Eric Flint's 1824, the state of Arkansas has been given to or taken over by the Americna Indians and free (or escaped) slaves. This has created a situation that the slave owning Southerners cannot abide. The result, of course, is war.

If you like alternative history, this book is likely to become a classic. It has a good story line, excellent characters acting reasonably intelligently or at least as intelligently as they did in the real history.

What strikes me as more interesting, is the impact that such a set of circumstances might have on the real history of our country. Could the existance of a sale free country on the border of the United States have provided a safety valve that might have prevented the Civil War?

This is the second in a series of books. The first, 1812, gives an alternative view of the War of 1812. I can't say if a third book comes in the seies -- I suspect that if it is it will be caled 1836 to coincide with the Battle of the Alamo. If there is such a book, I'll buy it. I'd like to see what happens to some of these characters.

I know, it's fiction, but I still like them.

The premise of "1824" is that the Cherokee and Creek nations, instead of being driven out of the Southeast by the US Army in the late 1830's, choose to emigrate voluntarily some twenty years earlier to what is now Oklahoma and Arkansas, getting well ahead of the tide of white America in order to build a rock that could resist it. Their effort is considerably assisted a few years later when the Iron Battalion, heroes of the Battle of New Orleans in early 1815, lead the free black population of Louisiana to Arkansas. States across the US begin passing freedmen exclusion laws which further assist Arkansas by forcing free black people to emigrate there, where most of the able-bodied men join the army as security for loans with which their families build new lives.

As in the real antebellum period, the prospect of a haven of freedom for African-Americans is most offensive to the deep South, which begins organizing the rest of the country for war. Seeing where this is going, Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams forge an alliance and a new political party sealed in bourbon and dedicated to the idea that all men not slaves have the same rights. Given that the unprincipled Henry Clay has already been elected President of the United States in the House of Representatives, however, and appointed John C. Calhoun as his secretary of war, will it be too late to save Arkansas and the soul of America?

"1824" does have one glaring flaw, namely, that the two most compelling characters from its predecessor "1812: The Rivers of War" have had their parts drastically reduced. Tiana Driscoll is almost completely absent, while her husband Patrick Driscoll, the one-armed sergeant from hell by way of Ireland, Napoleonic France and the battle of New Orleans, has been kicked upstairs to "Laird" of the Arkansas chiefdom of the Confederacy (not to be confused with the historic Confederate States of America) and can't get quite as down and dirty as he did in the first book. His switch of loyalties to Arkansas from America, when he was so proud of America's showing in the War of 1812 during the previous book, is best explained as loyalty to his troops above all else. He is still indispensable for a full examination of the politics and logistics of what Arkansas is doing. Author Eric Flint partially makes up for this problem by expanding the roles of Indian commissioner Sam Houston (who defects to Arkansas around the time Henry Clay is elected President for intensely personal reasons) and General Winfield Scott (who resigns from the army at the same time), bringing in other historic characters from John Brown to William Cullen Bryant to US generals-cum-politicians Zachary Taylor and William Henry Harrison, and creating the character of eighteen-year-old Arkansas Army Captain Sheffield Parker, who evolves from being a refugee from Baltimore into a junior officer of almost unlimited promise.

If "1824" suffers slightly from a relative-to-its-predecessor absence of romantic heat, it certainly matches if not exceeds its predecessor in military detail and the heat of battle. While there were four major battles depicted in "1812," "1824," a longer book, packs an equivalent amount of action into two. Like any good depiction of war the battle scenes in "1824" simultaneously disgusted and fascinated me. While the goal of the more respectable American characters is to avoid a civil war, the Arkansas War essentially evolves into just that, with American citizens fighting on both sides and showing roughly equivalent levels of valor and skill (except for the Southron freebooters and militias, written as appalling savages and detestable cowards respectively).

If you are tempted to believe the South had a good case in the Civil War, you will not enjoy "1824," but anyone else with an interest in antebellum American history will.