Some of the people in my middle grade novel Where Duty Calls are fictitious, and therefore have no grave markers. They were never born, and they will never die as long as readers keep them alive.
But other characters were real people, with lives that began long before I wrote about them - lives that were filled with events that I didn't include in my novels.
But other characters were real people, with lives that began long before I wrote about them - lives that were filled with events that I didn't include in my novels.
William Kemp was a real man, and Confederate records indicate he really died of pneumonia on Friday, February 7, 1862 somewhere on the Jornada del Muerto south of Fort Craig. He was buried by the side of the trail, but his resting place was unmarked and is now unknown. Information about young men who died without heirs is often difficult to track down. In my novel, illustrator Ian Barstow has drawn Kemp's grave to look like this.
Pedro Baca, Raul Atencio’s rich merchant uncle was a real man who lived in Socorro. He was indeed rich, and he was a merchant. Everything else in Where Duty Calls about him is fictitious. He was married, but not to the woman he is married to in my story. By all accounts, he was an upstanding citizen, and is buried in the local church, the same one that I have Raul and his family attend Christmas Eve mass in my novel. Raul, his father, mother and siblings are all fictitious characters.
Frederick Wade and John Norvell, who both served with the fictional Jemmy Martin, survived the war and went on to live long and full lives. Their memories, published in newspaper accounts, helped give life to my novel. Both men were characters with great senses of humor, which I tried to impart in the characters I created.
Captain James "Paddy" Graydon died three years after trying to use mules to blow up the Confederate mules and horses (a story that some historians question. This escapade might have been made up by Mark Twain!).
After the war, Graydon was involved in controlling the Mescalero Apaches in southern New Mexico. After Surgeon John Whitlock accused him of needlessly killing a number of braves, the two ended up dueling at Fort Stanton. Graydon was killed, and Whitlock was then killed by Graydon's men. He was buried at Fort Stanton, but twenty-four years later his remains were reinterred at the Federal Cemetery in Santa Fe.
After the war, Graydon was involved in controlling the Mescalero Apaches in southern New Mexico. After Surgeon John Whitlock accused him of needlessly killing a number of braves, the two ended up dueling at Fort Stanton. Graydon was killed, and Whitlock was then killed by Graydon's men. He was buried at Fort Stanton, but twenty-four years later his remains were reinterred at the Federal Cemetery in Santa Fe.
Like most Federal Veteran's Cemeteries, the one in Santa Fe contains row upon row of white headstones, giving it a look as uniform as a rank of soldiers. But there are a few exceptions. The most unique marker does not come from the Civil War period, but it deserves notice. It belongs to a Private named Dennis O’Leary, who died at Fort Wingate in 1901. According to local legend, O'Leary himself carved the statue, then committed suicide on the date he had inscribed. However, military records say he died of tuberculosis, a common illness of the period. O'Leary is, of course, not in Where Duty Calls, but his story seems like it has many possibilities.
Where Duty Calls is a novel about the Civil War in New Mexico. Written for middle grade readers, it is the first in a trilogy entitled Rebels Along the Rio Grande, and will be published by Kinkajou Press, a division of Artemesia Publishing, in June 2022. The author, Jennifer Bohnhoff, taught New Mexico history to 7th graders at two different middle schools in central New Mexico. She is a native New Mexican who is fascinated by the state's rich and diverse history.
If you'd like more information about her or her books, you can visit her website or sign up for her email list.
If you'd like more information about her or her books, you can visit her website or sign up for her email list.
