Edgar: Companion to "Want to Go West Lady" — Ben Steinlage

Edgar, is a Novel about a side of the Civil War you hardly ever hear about.

he Civil War has become one of the most glamorized periods of American history. This novel Edgar, is loosely based on historical fact and on personal family history that has been passed down through the years.

Unlike most novels this one isn't about President Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, a particular battle or General. What you get to know is about the life of the true hero's of the war. These hero's, are the people that lived in the middle of it. They were also the ones that lost their way of life, their fathers, sons, possessions and their self-respect. In exchange for what they lost, the country changed from a country of individual states to a true united country with everyone working together. Another point of interest, the end of the war brought the fight for rights of women and minorities.

For those that have read Want to Go West Lady, they know the basic story but a lot was left out of that story. As with the first novel a good part of the story revolves around the war but then it goes to the reconstruction. It was during the reconstruction the people of the south had to fight back for their dignity and a place in the newly constructed country.

This is a story of Ida Duncan's childhood friend and first husband Edgar Buchanan. Reading this you will learn of the secrets he kept from her and rest of the world through a diary he kept. You will be taken down the path that made him the man he became. As you travel his path through life, you will get to know his dreams, satisfactions, and disappointments.

Edgar's life began as the son of the owner of a large plantation. As the son of the owner he felt like royalty. Anything he wanted during that time was his for the asking. At one time his grandfather and father had slaves but that came to an end in the early 1800's. Almost twenty years before his birth most of the slaves were given their freedom along with a portion of land. A lot of them had been born on the plantation and decided to stay there and do what they could. The slaves that still lived there worked and were treated as members of his family.

This story begins three years before the war when Edgar is eleven. He becomes used to having people such as Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis attend functions at their place. Later he learns his parents played a big part in sending ex-slaves up north from their Virginia place to Canada. Then an unfortunate event happened after his father joined the Army. A Yankee soldier kills one of his best friends and he runs away from home to join the army as he father did.

Though he contracts typhoid he survives and goes back to the area he grew up in and finds Ida waiting for him. It's at this point the story really begins and you will learn what it was like to have lived back then.

This is a brilliantly told story of the lives as they were lived throughout that era. Depending from which prospective you look at this story it can be a historical adventure, or a romance all rolled into one.