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PERRIN LOVETT

~ Deo Vindice

PERRIN LOVETT

Tag Archives: “Civil” War

A Review of “A Fatal Mercy, The Man Who Lost The Civil War,” by Thomas Moore (1948 – 2021)

28 Saturday Aug 2021

Posted by perrinlovett in fiction

≈ Comments Off on A Review of “A Fatal Mercy, The Man Who Lost The Civil War,” by Thomas Moore (1948 – 2021)

Tags

"Civil" War, A Fatal Mercy, book review, books, fiction, Thomas Moore

A Review of “A Fatal Mercy, The Man Who Lost The Civil War,” by Thomas Moore

 

*We can add to Tom’s long list of achievements his proper raising of three sons and his very positive influence on his step-children. Within two or three hours of learning of his death yesterday, I had a few ideas and thought, “wow, I need to run that by Tom.” I’m still in the hit in the face stage; shocked to follow, I suppose. Here, I repost my 2019 review of his last major novel, an instant classic on several fronts. He was approached, though I don’t think the porject evolved far, about turning A FATAL MERCY into a TV or Netflix mini-series, which, if done correctly, would be excellent. Don’t wait for that; buy the book. 

 

The boy had it right in quoting his grandfather: “courage and fortitude are never in vain … no good cause is ever lost because all good causes are lost causes.” Even if he didn’t exactly understand the last part of it, that quote expresses an oft-felt theme, if not a rule, of life and of a higher civilization. It is the theme of his grandfather’s story from 1863 through 1913.

 

Was Drayton FitzHenry the man who lost the War for Southern Independence? The man himself certainly thought so, perhaps with good reason. Then again, the reader can, likely will, come to understand that there may have been a good reason behind the losing. The story is simple in its complexity, and visa versa.

 

Moore has really written two books in one. A Fatal Mercy is an in-depth study of the human condition and of Christian morality, Western in origin – Southern by the grace of God. On the one hand, the book is a stirring rendition of The War. In that alone, it is fantastic martial fiction, at once woven by an elegant and commanding imagination and steeped in painstakingly researched history. The story is compelling, riveting.

 

That is especially high praise from me. Unlike my father, I am not a “Civil” War buff. As a child, the old man dragged me from battlefield to battlefield, constantly uttering information gleaned from his (separate) War library. I certainly gained a respect – and the good manners to at least phrase “Civil” with those all-important quotation marks – but I never developed the … obsession. This book, all through its 727 pages, engendered some of that. This is a work my father would have read – and liked. Those of you who knew him, know that is higher praise.

 

Perhaps highest of all, is what that aforementioned history and the associated culture, presented alive and burning, generates with regard to what I see as the second grand interpretation, a thoughtful, reasoned, and unapologetic defense of relevant antiquity, classical knowledge, honor, and the grandeur of Western Civilization.

 

I am a student of classical Greco-Roman tradition. Here, Moore writes as well and true as any: “One reason we study the Classics, apart from the value of the knowledge itself, is for what they may teach us about our times.” With this sentiment, Cicero concurs: “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”

 

Today, most Americans, Southerners included, are ignorant of history, children easily led astray from their ancestral heritage. Moore addresses this issue, with direct examples, slightly dramatized, through the eyes of his protagonist. Drayton’s book-long dilemma revolves around a momentary eye of the storm at Gettysburg. Rather, around the eye of the fish hook, as Shelby Foote put it if we stretch Foote’s geographic definitions to include Little Round Top (and it is, topography-wise, a sub-eye). See: The Civil War, a Narrative, Stars in Their Courses, p. 479, Random House, New York (1963).

 

Of that terrible battle and its defining outcome, Bruce Catton wrote: “There was no pattern to any of this, except for the undesigned pattern that can always be traced after the event.” Never Call Retreat, Encounter at Gettysburg, p. 186, Doubleday, New York (1965). If this is true – and who doubts Catton – then Drayton’s dilemma is understandable. Drayton lived out the maxim: “Iniuriam facilius facias quam feras – Easier to do a wrong than to endure one.” – Syrus, Maxims. As he refrained from the former, so he endured the latter. Both counts are attributable to – and tribute to – his wisdom and honor.

 

And, there is an honor, and a wisdom, about Drayton FitzHenry that is rare among literary creations. Odysseus has it, as does Frodo. That wisdom moves beyond the narrative of the War, the horrors of Reconstruction, and into the following age. Along with other, innumerable truths, a lesson and a warning speak directly to us. It finds different ways of expression:

 

  • The kindly nature of a freed slave towards her former master;
  • The correct realization that the War ended the original American Republic, freeing one class of slaves only to create another;
  • Understanding the force and effect of the demonic legal trilogy of 1913: to this end, three separate quotes, conjoined (by me, for my purposes): “Power transmutes into Empire. Empire begets hubris. Hubris brings ruin. … [O]ur virtues will be needed by America, perhaps even the world, more than ever. … We must do the best we can and leave the consequences to God.”

Moore’s articulate, enrapturing characters witness the end of a Republic. We stand at the very possible end of an Empire. Then, in the fable, and now, in our reality, both intelligent free will and resolve to honor Providence properly combine. Sayeth the poet: “Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo – If I can’t move Heaven, I’ll raise Hell.” – Virgil, The Aeneid, VII, 312. The men at Gettysburg, of both sides, did exactly that. A Fatal Mercy does the same, does both in fact, recalling the horror and heroism of combat while instilling pride in the genteel, the cultured, the learned, the respecting, and the respectable. It is all of powerful magnitude.

 

The Author states: “My principal goal was not just to write the best contemporary novel of the War, but also to place my protagonist in an excruciating moral and emotional dilemma and see how he would resolve his inner conflict.” Moore has done that, and greater still. This book is a timeless Classic.

 

Also: The letters… The burning of the letters, Chapter Seventeen, moved me. The reader will, I trust, understand soon enough.

 

(Picture: Amazon/Green Altar Books – Shotwell/Moore)

 

A Fatal Mercy, The Man Who Lost The Civil War, Thomas Moore, Green Altar Books, Columbia, SC (2019).

I Said, Sherman Next

24 Wednesday Jun 2020

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

≈ Comments Off on I Said, Sherman Next

Tags

"Civil" War, diversity, haha, War

Anything even vaguely representative of civilization is being targeted. The savages in this hilarious story are the kind of trash that I mentioned they do not allow in Poland or Slovakia. In those sane nations, in the event that something slips and there is an emergency, they have these funny but effective things called bullets.

Is there a NASCAR statue we could direct these cretins towards?

The One-Third Chances

18 Thursday Jun 2020

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on The One-Third Chances

Tags

"Civil" War, America, poll, War

A third of “American voters” foresee civil war.

A Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday reveals that 34 percent of likely U.S. voters think the United States will experience a second civil war sometime in the next five years, but that includes only nine percent who say it is “very likely.”

Out of the current voter pool, this third is an approximate correlation with and to the percent of literal Americans (widely defined) in the US Empire. They’re the smarter voters. They’re ahead of failing Deutsch Bank.

Analysts, led by Henry Allen, say there is at least a one-in-three chance that at least one of four major tail risks will occur within the next decade: a major influenza pandemic killing more than two million people; a globally catastrophic volcanic eruption; a major solar flare; or a global war.

The flu and a supervolcano are possible. A solar flare would almost be welcomed. It’s the war, again, that hits the predictive mark. I’ve heard it convincingly asserted that we’re already in the early, cold stages of Civil War 2.0. I think it will heat up considerably, likely coming along with a major foreign war (that the Empire will lose badly).

If only we had a businessman in the White House, Republicucks in the Senate, and some conservative black robes!

More History Crashes Down

07 Sunday Jun 2020

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

≈ Comments Off on More History Crashes Down

Tags

"Civil" War, deep decline, riots, Virginia, William Wickham

It’s for the best. The rioters and heathens tore down Gen. Wickham’s statue in Richmond.

After a day and evening of peaceful protests and marches in Richmond and its suburbs, protesters using ropes pulled down a statue honoring Confederate Gen. Williams Carter Wickham, which has stood in the park since 1891.

Most of the protesters who had marched through the city Saturday night had already dispersed when the statue was taken down. After it fell, one person urinated on the statue and then ran away.

A perfectly-fitting metaphor for the fading days: piss on civilization and then run away. All those who proclaim hatred for the (better than them) Men of the West will regret it one day when their own idols crash down.

PS: would that rope around the statue’s neck count as a hate crime? Just asking.

There is No Upper Limit on Taxation

15 Friday Nov 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on There is No Upper Limit on Taxation

Tags

"Civil" War, 2020, 2033, Elizabeth Warren, taxes, theft

Another potential gift of the 16th Amendment. Squaw Warren’s tax plan is technically, legally possible.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has unveiled sweeping tax proposals that would push federal tax rates on some billionaires and multimillionaires above 100%.

That prospect raises questions for taxpayers and the broader economy that experts are starting to ponder: Under which circumstances would taxpayers have to pay those rates? How might that change their behavior? And would investment and economic growth suffer?

Potential tax rates over 100% could result from the combination of tax increases the Massachusetts senator proposes for the very top tier of investors. She wants to return the top income-tax rate to 39.6% from 37%, impose a new 14.8% tax for Social Security, add an annual tax of up to 6% on accumulated wealth and require rich investors to pay capital-gains taxes at the same rates as other income even if they don’t sell their assets.

Consider a billionaire with a $1,000 investment who earns a 6% return, or $60, received as a capital gain, dividend or interest. If all of Ms. Warren’s taxes are implemented, he could owe 58.2% of that, or $35 in federal tax. Plus, his entire investment would incur a 6% wealth tax, i.e., at least $60. The result: taxes as high as $95 on income of $60 for a combined tax rate of 158%.

One of the lies told to sell the Sixteenth was that the highest rate would never come close to 10%. My weak math skills suggest that 158 is greater than 10. This may be TPC’s topic for next week. For now, I think I am actually in favor of this scheme of theft and slavery. But maybe that’s just the accelerationist in me. Tick. Tick. Tick.

UPDATE: When reading the WSJ article about Squaw, note the names of the policy-makers and backers.

War on the Horizon

25 Friday Oct 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on War on the Horizon

Tags

"Civil" War, 2033, America, terminal decline, War

Amazingly, a majority of Amerikans, of whom a majority are also idiots, get this one right. Two-thirds foresee a civil war. And, soon.

Partisan political division and the resulting incivility has reached a low in America, with 67% believing that the nation is nearing civil war, according to a new national survey.

“The majority of Americans believe that we are two-thirds of the way to being on the edge of civil war. That to me is a very pessimistic place,” said Mo Elleithee, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service.

And worse, he said in announcing the results of the institute’s Battleground Poll, the political division is likely to make the upcoming 2020 presidential race the nastiest in modern history.

I think they have the percentage wrong. It’s more likely that we’re around 98% there, now. All that’s needed are a few sparks. On that front, the Fed and the neocons are doing all they can to help. 2033 may indeed be an overly optimistic estimate.

See Something? Say Something

03 Saturday Aug 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

≈ Comments Off on See Something? Say Something

Tags

"Civil" War, 2033, false flag, gun control, shooting, Texas

Okay. Here goes: Wait until it’s M777s.

No need to link to it, as the story keeps shifting in the breeze, but there’s been a shooting at a Texas Walmart.

I see a violent civil war approaching and unstoppably so. Just thought I say something.

But, hey! REAL news! NFL preseason kicks off next week, baby!

An Understandable Shift

25 Saturday May 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

≈ Comments Off on An Understandable Shift

Tags

"Civil" War, America, War

All things 1860’s “Civil” War are losing the interest of an increasingly vapid public.

FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga.—Is Civil War tourism history?

Once a tourism staple for many Southern states and a few Northern ones, destinations related to the 1860s war are drawing fewer visitors. Historians point to recent fights over Confederate monuments and a lack of interest by younger generations as some of the reasons.

The National Park Service’s five major Civil War battlefield parks—Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, Chickamauga/Chattanooga and Vicksburg—had a combined 3.1 million visitors in 2018, down from about 10.2 million in 1970, according to park-service data. Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, the most famous battle site, had about 950,000 visitors last year, just 14% of how many it had in 1970 and the lowest annual number of visitors since 1959. Only one of these parks, Antietam, in Maryland, saw an increase from 1970.

When Louis Varnell opened a military-memorabilia store near Chickamauga Battlefield here in the 2000s, he had several competitors. Today, his store is the only one left. Only about 10% to 20% of his sales are Civil War-related; he mostly sells stuff from World War II or other conflicts, he said.

Read all about it.

It may be that subconsciously the sheeple begin to suspect that the next civil war is much closer, temporally, than the last one. Tick, tick, tick…

A Review of “A Fatal Mercy, The Man Who Lost The Civil War,” by Thomas Moore

15 Wednesday May 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

"Civil" War, A Fatal Mercy, book review, books, fiction, Thomas Moore

A Review of “A Fatal Mercy, The Man Who Lost The Civil War,” by Thomas Moore

 

The boy had it right in quoting his grandfather: “courage and fortitude are never in vain … no good cause is ever lost because all good causes are lost causes.” Even if he didn’t exactly understand the last part of it, that quote expresses an oft-felt theme, if not a rule, of life and of a higher civilization. It is the theme of his grandfather’s story from 1863 through 1913.

 

Was Drayton FitzHenry the man who lost the War for Southern Independence? The man himself certainly thought so, perhaps with good reason. Then again, the reader can, likely will, come to understand that there may have been a good reason behind the losing. The story is simple in its complexity, and visa versa.

 

Moore has really written two books in one. A Fatal Mercy is an in-depth study of the human condition and of Christian morality, Western in origin – Southern by the grace of God. On the one hand, the book is a stirring rendition of The War. In that alone, it is fantastic martial fiction, at once woven by an elegant and commanding imagination and steeped in painstakingly researched history. The story is compelling, riveting.

 

That is especially high praise from me. Unlike my father, I am not a “Civil” War buff. As a child, the old man dragged me from battlefield to battlefield, constantly uttering information gleaned from his (separate) War library. I certainly gained a respect – and the good manners to at least phrase “Civil” with those all-important quotation marks – but I never developed the … obsession. This book, all through its 727 pages, engendered some of that. This is a work my father would have read – and liked. Those of you who knew him, know that is higher praise.

 

Perhaps highest of all, is what that aforementioned history and the associated culture, presented alive and burning, generates with regard to what I see as the second grand interpretation, a thoughtful, reasoned, and unapologetic defense of relevant antiquity, classical knowledge, honor, and the grandeur of Western Civilization.

 

I am a student of classical Greco-Roman tradition. Here, Moore writes as well and true as any: “One reason we study the Classics, apart from the value of the knowledge itself, is for what they may teach us about our times.” With this sentiment, Cicero concurs: “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”

 

Today, most Americans, Southerners included, are ignorant of history, children easily led astray from their ancestral heritage. Moore addresses this issue, with direct examples, slightly dramatized, through the eyes of his protagonist. Drayton’s book-long dilemma revolves around a momentary eye of the storm at Gettysburg. Rather, around the eye of the fish hook, as Shelby Foote put it if we stretch Foote’s geographic definitions to include Little Round Top (and it is, topography-wise, a sub-eye). See: The Civil War, a Narrative, Stars in Their Courses, p. 479, Random House, New York (1963).

 

Of that terrible battle and its defining outcome, Bruce Catton wrote: “There was no pattern to any of this, except for the undesigned pattern that can always be traced after the event.” Never Call Retreat, Encounter at Gettysburg, p. 186, Doubleday, New York (1965). If this is true – and who doubts Catton – then Drayton’s dilemma is understandable. Drayton lived out the maxim: “Iniuriam facilius facias quam feras – Easier to do a wrong than to endure one.” – Syrus, Maxims. As he refrained from the former, so he endured the latter. Both counts are attributable to – and tribute to – his wisdom and honor.

 

And, there is an honor, and a wisdom, about Drayton FitzHenry that is rare among literary creations. Odysseus has it, as does Frodo. That wisdom moves beyond the narrative of the War, the horrors of Reconstruction, and into the following age. Along with other, innumerable truths, a lesson and a warning speak directly to us. It finds different ways of expression:

 

  • The kindly nature of a freed slave towards her former master;

 

  • The correct realization that the War ended the original American Republic, freeing one class of slaves only to create another;

 

  • Understanding the force and effect of the demonic legal trilogy of 1913: to this end, three separate quotes, conjoined (by me, for my purposes): “Power transmutes into Empire. Empire begets hubris. Hubris brings ruin. … [O]ur virtues will be needed by America, perhaps even the world, more than ever. … We must do the best we can and leave the consequences to God.”

 

Moore’s articulate, enrapturing characters witness the end of a Republic. We stand at the very possible end of an Empire. Then, in the fable, and now, in our reality, both intelligent free will and resolve to honor Providence properly combine. Sayeth the poet: “Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo – If I can’t move Heaven, I’ll raise Hell.” – Virgil, The Aeneid, VII, 312. The men at Gettysburg, of both sides, did exactly that. A Fatal Mercy does the same, does both in fact, recalling the horror and heroism of combat while instilling pride in the genteel, the cultured, the learned, the respecting, and the respectable. It is all of powerful magnitude.

 

The Author states: “My principal goal was not just to write the best contemporary novel of the War, but also to place my protagonist in an excruciating moral and emotional dilemma and see how he would resolve his inner conflict.” Moore has done that, and greater still. This book is a timeless Classic.

 

Also: The letters… The burning of the letters, Chapter Seventeen, moved me. The reader will, I trust, understand soon enough.

 

(Picture: Amazon/Green Altar Books – Shotwell/Moore)

 

A Fatal Mercy, The Man Who Lost The Civil War, Thomas Moore, Green Altar Books, Columbia, SC (2019).

Who was the Man Who Lost the Civil War?

11 Saturday May 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

≈ Comments Off on Who was the Man Who Lost the Civil War?

Tags

"Civil" War, books, fiction, Southern, Thomas Moore

Did you ever have a feeling about a college professor? Maybe a classics professor? (What is it with those, here and at TPC, lately???) Anyway, did you suspect some old man might have, say … lost the War Between the States? Probably not. But, it could have happened. Such is the premise of,

A Fatal Mercy: The Man Who Lost The Civil War

51oPcYKaS8L.jpg

Amazon/Green Altar Books – Shotwell/Tom Moore

Tom Moore is a friend of mine. He is a man of the West, dedicated to more than mere Southern culture, to measured, educated civility itself. And, by “dedicated,” I mean actually willing to resolutely walk where Angels fear to tread. For that alone, I would recommend his novel. Yet, only a modest way into the 727! pages, I am already hooked, materially.

As I told Tom in an email, I really think this is the first Civil War fiction I’ve read since The Red Badge of Courage, some 35 years ago. Fatal Mercy has a Crane feeling about it, maybe something Faulkneresque. This is historical fiction with a high degree of historical accuracy, not unlike the “can’t believe it’s NOT fiction” work of Erik Larson. In other words, it’s a story you don’t want to pause. There’s also another speculation in my mind about Lieutenant Drayton and his titular (in)action. Might his mercy affect the War of Southern Independence as Bilbo’s did the War of the Ring? I have no idea at this point. But, again, this point is very early on. Join me and let’s find out what happens.

Consider this another of my famous book review previews – more to follow, here, maybe at TPC, and on Amazon (5 Stars are a given). Order your copy today – click the above link and/or picture – and get started. She’s $4.95 on Kindle and $19.95 for a trade paperback.

Saw you a-marchin’ with Robert E. Lee;
You held your head a-high, tryin’ to win the victory.
You fought for your folks but you didn’t die in vain;
Even though you lost, they speak highly of your name.

– “Johnny Reb,” Kilgore/Horton (1959)

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