_RION HALL PUBLISHING______________________
‘Victim of Honor: The Story of John Y. Beall and the Northwestern Conspiracy’
_____________________________________________Review written by Charlie Koenig and appeared in the Mathews Virginia Gazette-Journal July 5, 2007.
Was John Yates Beall a marauding pirate or an honorable soldier fighting for the Confederacy behind enemy lines? From the title of his work of historical fiction, it’s pretty obvious where author James Duffey stands on that question.
While Victim of Honor focuses mainly on Captain Beall’s adventure on Lake Erie, where he captured two steamers and threatened to take the only U.S. warship patrolling the Great Lakes, the book does contain a fascinating bit of local history, that of the Confederate Coast Guard.
Operating out of Horn Harbor in Mathews, Beall’s Confederate Coast Guard harassed shipping, captured Union prisoners, and severed the telegraph line from the Eastern Shore. His success led to Union General Isaac Wistar’s October 1863 raid into Mathews County, specifically to apprehend the renegade and his crew. Duffey did some of his research in Mathews to write the chapter titled “Privateers on the Chesapeake.” In that chapter, Duffey tells of Beall’s success in plying the waters of the Chesapeake Bay in his white-hulled Swan and the black companion vessel, Raven.” He also talks about Wistar’s raid and the drumhead execution of Mathews County civilian, Sands Smith.
However, much of the action in Victim of Honor takes place in Canada (where the plots were laid) and the northern U.S. The book follows Beall’s capture and eventual hanging as a spy. Through it all Duffey portrays Beall as an honorable soldier acting under orders from his superiors, and his death as an unavoidable tragedy carried out by a vengeful General Dix.
Duffey has an ear for realistic dialogue and a talent for keeping the story moving…Victim of Honor is a good read and an exciting tale of a forgotten chapter in Civil War history.
‘Victim of Honor’ retells Beall’s story
Review written by Sandra Fahning for the Medina Gazette, May 12, 2007.
When is a book about history not a history textbook? When it is told in the form of an historical novel, as is the case with Victim of Honor (Rion Hall Publishing; $17.95), by author James E. Duffey. This is the story of John Yates Beall and the Northwestern Conspiracy that took place during the Civil War. This is not a work of fiction.
Duffey, an historian and educator currently serving as adjunct professor of American history at Kent State University, spent seven years researching and writing the story of Beall’s Civil War activities and his subsequent execution. In the book’s forward Duffey states:
“When I began, I had hoped to write a biography of Captain John Yates Beall that would tell his story in a more accurate and honest way than it had been reported in his time.”
Although information was hard to find and some of it is gone forever, the author forged ahead believing that the story needed to be told, that Beall deserved to get the justice denied him more than a century ago. Duffey states up front that much of Beall’s story has been reported inaccurately, even by his contemporaries and he has tried to correct those inaccuracies but admits that he had to make some “educated and hopefully sound judgments.” He also created dialogue and scenes with the hopes of providing insight for the readers. “I have in every case been as true to actual facts as was humanly possible,” writes Duffey.
This is a well-written book not only about the life of John Yates Beall, but also of the subterfuge and politics of the Civil War. For the most part, readers are not taken to the battlefields. They are instead introduced to the people of the North and of the South who were involved in the war.
Because this is a true story, we know from the very beginning that Beall is executed. It’s the events that lead up to his death that are compelling and will make readers wish they could change history—that there was a happy ending to this story. Beall was a thorn in the side of Union authorities. Among the many reasons they wanted him stopped were his disruptions of cargo shipping on the Chesapeake Bay and his attempts to free prisoners held at Johnson’s Island Prison in Sandusky Bay.
When he finally was captured, Beall was true to his own code of honor and he refused to implicate others. Unfortunately, there were those who were not as honorable and saved their own lives. The last chapters of the book deal with his imprisonment and execution and they are moving. Duffey has somehow captured Beall’s personality and his awful plight with a kind of dignity and grace.
The author has received the Madeline Blum Award for his study of the Irish immigrants in Youngstown, Ohio 1890-1930, and is currently working on two other books on the lives of Bennet Graham Burley (Beall’s second in command) and Martha O’Bryan (Beall’s fiancée) after the Civil War years.