This fall, I'm going to say goodbye to some old friends. I'm already feeling a little blue about it.
I first met Jemmy Martin back in 2015. I was teaching New Mexico history to 7th graders, many of whom complained about how much they hated history. It was boring, they said: just dates and names. That's when I began thinking about writing historical fiction that would flesh out those dates and names: give them dreams and hopes and personalities. I knew the events I wanted to portray in my novel, but I couldn't find anyone who was everywhere I wanted him to be, so I created Jemmy. He is based on a number of different real people I encountered through diaries, journals, newspaper articles and rosters.
Jemmy is a farm boy from the countryside outside San Antonio, Texas. He enters New Mexico with Henry Sibley's Confederate Army of New Mexico not because he believes in the cause, but because his brother signs up himself and the family's mules to haul supplies. When the brother backs out, Jemmy feels compelled to accompany the mules and bring them safely back to the family. It is a mission that he discovers to be much more dangerous and complicated than he'd envisioned.
I first met Jemmy Martin back in 2015. I was teaching New Mexico history to 7th graders, many of whom complained about how much they hated history. It was boring, they said: just dates and names. That's when I began thinking about writing historical fiction that would flesh out those dates and names: give them dreams and hopes and personalities. I knew the events I wanted to portray in my novel, but I couldn't find anyone who was everywhere I wanted him to be, so I created Jemmy. He is based on a number of different real people I encountered through diaries, journals, newspaper articles and rosters.
Jemmy is a farm boy from the countryside outside San Antonio, Texas. He enters New Mexico with Henry Sibley's Confederate Army of New Mexico not because he believes in the cause, but because his brother signs up himself and the family's mules to haul supplies. When the brother backs out, Jemmy feels compelled to accompany the mules and bring them safely back to the family. It is a mission that he discovers to be much more dangerous and complicated than he'd envisioned.
When he gets to New Mexico, Jemmy becomes involved in the Battle of Valverde. There, he meets Raul Atencio. Raul is another character that I developed inspired by real people. He is the nephew of a rich merchant in Socorro, New Mexico, but his father is a peon, a member of the lower class. He wants to become rich and influential like his uncle, who is supporting the Union soldiers at Fort Craig because it is lining his pocket, not because he feels any particular allegiance. Like Jemmy, Raul is not interested in the causes of the Civil War, but becomes embroiled in it nonetheless. This causes him to reconsider his place in society, and several aspects of his culture, including its relationship with Anglos and Native Americans.
In 2017, I published the story of Jemmy and Raul's encounter at the Battle of Valverde in a middle grade novel entitled Valverde. Luckily for me, and for the story, Geoff Habiger, the publisher at Artemesia Publishing saw the potential in my book and picked it up for Kinkajou Press, his middle grade imprint. The story was republished in 2022 with a new cover, a new title, and editing that made it both a tighter and a more emotionally satisfying story.
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But the Battle of Valverde was not the end of the story of New Mexico during the Civil War. The Army of New Mexico continues north, and Jemmy goes with it. He passes through Socorro, Albuquerque, and finally encounters the Union Army again in Glorieta Pass, a mountainous valley southeast of Santa Fe. There he meets Cian Lachlann, an Irish boy who has joined the Union Army so that he can be fed and clothed. His greatest desire is to find a family and some place to call home. Cian's family immigrated to America to escape the Irish Potato Famine. After his mother and father died, the orphan boy travels west to mine for gold in Colorado. From there, he joins the Colorado Volunteers, who travel south to block the Confederate progress. He and Jemmy meet up on the last day of the Battle of Glorieta Pass, where the Confederates suffer a devastating loss to their supply train.
The story of Jemmy and Cian's encounter at the Battle of Glorieta Pass was first published as a middle grade novel entitled Glorieta in 2020. Kinkajou Press republished the story as The Worst Enemy in 2023.
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Where Duty Calls has won the CIPA EVVY AND NM-AZ Book awards and was a finalist for the Spur and the Zia. The Worst Enemy was also a Spur award finalist.
The highpoint of the story of the Civil War in New Mexico may be the Battle of Glorieta, but that is not the end of the story. The end doesn't come until the Confederate Army is out of New Mexico. That end comes in The Famished Country, the final book in my trilogy. I didn't write this book until after Geoff had picked up the first two, so there will only be one edition, whose cover I will reveal soon. In this third book, readers will learn whether Jemmy, Raul and Cian are able to fulfill their deepest wishes. Does Jemmy bring home his mules? Does Raul achieve the social standing he craves? Does Cian find a place he belongs? Or does each boy outgrow his original desire?
In addition to having to say goodbye to my three boys, I'll be leaving Annabelle Watkins, the beautiful but petulant daughter of a Union Major, who stole Raul's heart, tried to steal Jemmy's and really wants to leave the uncivilized west for boarding school and a chance for a place in high society.
I've been a little melancholy thinking about the end of the story. Even if they are not real, I feel that Annabelle, Jemmy, Raul and Cian are going to continue their lives without my watching over the process. They've become old friends in the years that I have explored their actions and personalities.
I've been a little melancholy thinking about the end of the story. Even if they are not real, I feel that Annabelle, Jemmy, Raul and Cian are going to continue their lives without my watching over the process. They've become old friends in the years that I have explored their actions and personalities.
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I'll also be leaving a supporting cast of real, historical people. Unlike my fictitious characters, I know the outcome of these people's lives, and I didn't have any say in those outcomes. Some, I am proud to have met. Others become people I am not proud of.
If you haven't begun this story, I advise you pick up Where Duty Calls now. Read it and The Worst Enemy, so that you'll be ready when The Famished Country comes out this October..
Jennifer Bohnhoff is a former educator and the author of a dozen books for middle grade and adult readers. You can learn more about her and her books on her website.
