Fact and imagination are mixed with abandon in The Dead Survivors. As imagination is the larger part of the whole, it is easiest to begin by stating facts.
As of this writing, there is a heated controversy happening between Virginia and Minnesota over Minnesota’s possession of the Twenty-eighth Virginia’s regimental flag. That flag was captured during the Civil War on the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg by Marshall Sherman of the legendary First Minnesota Volunteers. By most accounts, John Lee was the last member of the Twenty-eighth Virginia to carry the regiment’s colors before the flag was captured. Because of the important role played by these individuals at a critical juncture in the battle, I chose to use their real names.
All other names of soldiers associated with the First Minnesota and the Twenty-eighth Virginia and their descendents are fictional. It is especially important to note that personal details with respect to Sherman and Lee are fiction: there is no evidence that Marshall Sherman fathered a child, that John Lee hanged himself two years after Gettysburg, or that John Lee fathered a daughter who married a man named Macintosh.
While the Twenty-eighth Virginia’s regimental flag is held in a secure area at the Minnesota Historical Society’s History Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, all History Center personnel in The Dead Survivors are fictional, as are all characters in the book.
Jack Blanton, in addition to being my trusted first reader, provided invaluable assistance and incomparable hospitality in orienting me to the charms and curiosities of Richmond in general and Hollywood Cemetery in particular. Luis Patton’s collecting and gardening talents inspired several scenes set in Richmond. My dear cousin, Barbara Kuske, was the perfect companion for a visit to the Gettysburg National Battlefield; who else would think reading every inscription on Gettysburg’s more than 1300 monuments, memorials, and markers was a perfect way to spend summer afternoons? June Gor-nitzka, Carol Beglau, Delores Henehan, Helen Lifson, and Edie Johnson continue to provide important support.
Ian Sumner, honorary librarian of the Flag Institute, East Yorkshire, England, made helpful suggestions regarding sources for fabric used in Civil War Confederate flags. Richard Poole of the British Wool Marketing Board, Bradford, England, told me the true story of wool research conducted in 1995 to identify the crew of a British ship sunk off the U.S. coast during the Revolutionary War. This is a story that merits a mystery all its own; I have plundered selected details of Mr. Poole’s tale for my own purposes in The Dead Survivors.
To enter the historical archives of the Civil War is to follow Alice down the Rabbit’s Hole. I did eventually emerge, dazed, and with particular appreciation for four books: The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers by Richard Moe; For Cause & Comrade: Why Men Fought in the Civil War by James M. McPherson; Minnesota in the Civil War, edited by Kenneth Carley; and April 1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik. Articles on the flag controversy in The Washington Post by Kathy Sawyer and The St. Paul Pioneer Press by Nick Coleman were of great value.
To end with the beginning, I’ve had great luck in my agent and editor—respectively, Jane Jordan Browne and Kelley Ragland. As with all people who are good at what they do, their associates are first-rate and include Scott Mendel, Benjamin Sevier, Linda McFall, Deborah Miller, Janie McAdams, and Yamil Anglada.