Miracles and Massacres (38 page)

Chapter 4: The Barbary War: A Steep Price for Peace

Most of the facts used to create this story came from the following sources:

“Battle of Derna, 27 April 1805: Selected Naval Documents.”
http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/barbary_derna.htm
.

Baepler, Paul, ed.
White Slaves, African Masters: An Anthology of American Barbary Captivity Narratives
. University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Fremont-Barnes, Gregory.
Wars of the Barbary Pirates: To the Shores of Tripoli: The Rise of U.S. Navy and Marines
. Osprey, 2006.

Lambert, Frank.
The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World
. Hill & Wang, 2007.

London, Joshua E.
Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation
. Wiley, 2005.

Oren, Michael B.
Power Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present
. Norton, 2008.

Ray, William.
Horrors of Slavery: Or, the American Tars in Tripoli
. Rutgers University Press, 2008.

Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural Address. March 4, 1801.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/jefinau1.asp
.

Whipple, A. B. C.
To the Shores of Tripoli: The Birth of the U.S. Navy and the Marines
. Bluejacket Books, 2001.

Zacks, Richard.
The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805
. Hyperion, 2006.

Most of the dialogue in this chapter was imagined, but the following quotations were taken in whole or in part from the historical record:

“No man will hereafter love you as I do—but I prefer the field of Mars to the bower of Venus”: Oren, 63.

“We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists”: Jefferson's First Inaugural Address.

“Nothing but a formidable force will effect an honorable peace with Tripoli”: London, 146.

“I sincerely wish you could empower”: London, 145.

“. . . that I might never experience the horrors of another morning”: William Ray Diary, December 22, 1803.

“We are now about to embark on an expedition”: Oren, 59.

“A fleet of Quaker meetinghouses would have done just as well!”: Zacks, 7.

“. . . limit to the avarice of the Barbary princes”: Zacks, 39.

“Stop! I will cut off the head of any man who dares to fire a shot!”: Whipple, 199.

“We have marched a distance of two hundred miles”: Whipple, 202.

“. . . for the purpose of obtaining a peace with my brother”: Whipple, 214.

“. . . more favorable and—separately considered—more honorable”: Lambert, 153.

“I firmly believe we would have entered Tripoli”: Whipple, 256.

“. . . settled policy of America, that as peace”: Oren, 74.

“The United States, while they wish”: Oren, 74.

Some scenes in this chapter were imagined or expanded beyond the basic historical record, including:

The May 15, 1801, scene in Tunis is imagined. The attack in Tripoli on the U.S. consulate it describes was real, although it is unclear to what degree the people in the consulate would have felt they were in danger, as the Tripolitans' main act of aggression was cutting down a flagpole outside.

The July 1, 1803, scene is imagined. While Jefferson did make the decision to send the USS
Philadelphia
to Tripoli, it is unclear exactly when he came to this decision.

The May 1, 1804, scene is imagined. Ray kept a diary, and he did not mention this incident in it. The scene's focus is on the beating of an American prisoner. The Tripolitans were famous for abuse of their slave prisoners.

The battle of Derna had more fronts than the one described in the April 27, 1805, entry. Eaton divided his army, and this scene tells the story from Eaton's point of view, focusing on his bayonet charge. Eaton kept a diary, but most of the battle details are imagined (for example, Eaton plunging his bayonet into an enemy soldier), as is the dialogue. (Eaton getting shot is real.)

Chapter 5: Edison vs. Westinghouse: An Epic Struggle for Power

Most of the facts used to create this story came from the following sources:

A Warning from the Edison Electric Light Company
. Edison Electric Light Company, 1887.
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=RylRAAAAYAAJ&rdid
.

Bellis, Mary. “Death, Money, and the History of the Electric Chair: The History of the Electric Chair and Death by Execution.”
About.com
.
http://inventors.about.com/od/hstartinventions/a/Electric_Chair.htm
.

Daly, Michael. “Topsy: New Book Tells how Thomas Edison Electrocuted an Innocent Elephant at Coney Island.”
New York Daily News
, June 29. 2013.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/topsy-elephant-slain-thomas-edison-article-1.1385182#commentpostform
.

“Edison Electrocuting a 28 year old Elephant named Topsy.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow-CwEdwktg
.

“Electric Light Companies—Domestic: Edison Electric Light Co (1887–1889).”
http://edison.rutgers.edu/NamesSearch/glocpage.php3?gloc=CA019&
.

“The Great Barrington Electrification, 1886.” Edison Tech Center, 2010.
http://edisontechcenter.org/GreatBarrington.html
.

“The History of the Electric Chair.” Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
http://www.ccadp.org/electricchair.htm
.

Jonnes, Jill.
Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World
. Random House, 2003.

King, Gilbert. “Edison vs. Westinghouse: A Shocking Rivalry.”
Smithsonian.com
, October 11, 2011.
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2011/10/edison-vs-westinghouse-a-shocking-rivalry/
.

Kosanovic, Bogdan R. “Nikola Tesla.” University of Pittsburgh, December 29, 2000.
http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla/
.

Prout, Henry G.
A Life of George Westinghouse
. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1921.
http://books.google.com/books?id=NglTzPG3-l8C&pg
.

“Seat of Power.”
Snopes.com
. July 21, 2007.
http://www.snopes.com/science/edison.asp
.

“Tesla: Life and Legacy: War of the Currents.”
PBS.org
,
http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_warcur.html
.

“Thomas Edison and the Electric Chair.” Free Enterprise Land, 2005.
http://www.freeenterpriseland.com/EDISON.html
.

Most of the dialogue in this chapter was imagined, but the following quotations were taken in whole or in part from the historical record:

“The most effective of these, are known as ‘alternating machines' ”: Mark Essig,
Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death
. Walker, 2003.

“I believe there has been a systemic attempt”: Jonnes, 167.

“The only excuse for the use of the fatal alternating current”:
The Electrical Engineer: A Monthly Review of Theoretical and Applied Science
, August 1888, p. 360.

“In your judgment, can alternating electric”: Liz Sonneborn,
The Electric Light: Thomas Edison's Illuminating Invention
, Infobase, 2007.

Chapter 6: The Battle of Wounded Knee: Medals of Dishonor

Most of the facts used to create this story came from the following sources:

“Battle of Wounded Knee.”
Record Union
, February 13, 1891.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015104/1891-02-13/ed-1/seq-1.pdf
.

Beyer, Walter F., and Oscar F. Keydel.
Deeds of Valor: How America's Heroes Won the Medal of Honor
. Detroit: Perrien-Keydel, 1901.

Carroll, John M.
The Arrest and Killing of Sitting Bull: A Documentary
. Glendale, CA: A. H. Clark, 1986.

Coleman, William.
Voices of Wounded Knee
. University of Nebraska Press, 2000.

“Col. Forsyth Exonerated: His Action at Wounded Knee Justified.”
New York Times
, 13 February 1891.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=2&res=9A03E7DA1F3BE533A25750C1A9649C94609ED7CF&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
.

Congressional Medal of Honor Society. “John Lafferty.”
CMOHS.org
.
http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/778/lafferty-john.php
.

Eastman, Elaine Goodale, and Kay Graber.
Sister to the Sioux: The Memoirs of Elaine Goodale Eastman, 1885–91
. University of Nebraska Press, 1978.

Ewing, Charles B. “The Wounded of the Wounded Knee Battlefield, with Remarks on Wounds Produced by Small and Large Calibre Bullets.”
Boston Medical and Surgical Journal
126 (1892): 463.

“Fields of Fire: Massacre at Wounded Knee.”
Oneofmanyfeathers.com
, January 14, 2013.
http://www.oneofmanyfeathers.com/massacre_at_wounded_knee.html
.

Green, Jerry. “The Medals of Wounded Knee.”
Nebraska History
75 (1994): 200–8.

Huntzicker, William E. “The Sioux Outbreak in the Illustrated Press.” South Dakota State Historical Society. Vol. 20, No. 4, 1990.
http://www.sdshspress.com/index.php?id=279&action=950
.

“Indian Fighter Quits Army.”
New York Times
, January 15, 1911.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9A06E3D81731E233A25756C1A9679C946096D6CF
.

“Indian Police.”
Encyclopedia of the Great Plains
.
http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.law.022
.

“Indian Wars Campaigns.” U.S. Army Center of Military History.
http://www.history.army.mil/html/reference/army_flag/iw.html
.

Kelley, William Fitch.
Pine Ridge 1890: An Eye Witness Account of the Events Surrounding the Fighting at Wounded Knee
. Pierre Bovis, 1971.?

Lindberg, Christer, ed. “Foreigners in Action at Wounded Knee.”
Nebraska History
71 (1990): 170–81.

“Massacre at Wounded Knee, 1890.”
Eyewitnesstohistory.com
, 1998.
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/knee.htm
.

Mauer, Lauren. “Rank and File: The Rocky History of Compulsory Military Training at MIT.”
MIT Technology Review
, February 21, 2012.
http://www.technologyreview.com/article/426941/rank-and-file/
.

McLaughlin, James. “An Account of Sitting Bull's Death.”
PBS.org
, 1891.
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/eight/sbarrest.htm
.

“Native American Sioux Dance 1894.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQGW5a0q51w
.

9th Memorial Cavalry. “William Othello Wilson.”
9thcavalry.com
, 2013.
http://www.9thcavalry.com/history/wilson.htm
.

Ostler, Jeffery.
The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee
. Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Richardson, Heather Cox.
Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre
. Basic Books, 2010.

Selfless Service: The Cavalry Career of Brigadier General Samuel M. Whitside from 1858 to 1902
. Thesis presented to the Faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College by Samuel L Russell, Maj, USA, B.S., Virginia Military Institute, 1988, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 2002.

Senate Joint Resolution 14, 111th Cong., 1st session. April 30, 2009.

Shackel, Paul A. “Wounded Knee Memorialization.” In
Myths, Memory, and the Making of the American Landscape
. University Press of Florida, 2001, pp.112–15.

Spotted Elk, Calvin. “No Medals for Massacre.”
Avaaz.org
.
www.avaaz.org/en/petition/No_Medals_for_Massacre_Justice_for_Wounded_Knee/
.

Viola, Herman.
Trail to Wounded Knee: The Last Stand of the Plains Indians
. National Geographic Society, 2003.

“Wounded Knee Massacre: Battle of Wounded Knee: Sioux Campaign of 1890–91: United States Army Reports.”
http://www.paperlessarchives.com/wounded-knee-army-reports.html
.

Most of the dialogue in this chapter was imagined, but the following quotations were taken in whole or in part from the historical record:

“the assassin of the brave Custer”: Huntzicker.

“In the annals of American history, there cannot be found a battle”: Huntzicker.

“Troops were not disposed to deliver its fire”:
New York Times
.

“The interests of military service do not, in my judgment”:
New York Times
.

“Mr. President, what happened at Wounded Knee was not worthy”: Letter to the White House from Calvin Spotted Elk,
https://m.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10151398571283035&p=10&_rdr
.

Most of the scenes in this chapter were developed based on facts from the historical record. However, while Nelson Miles was at the massacre site on January 1, 1891, it was a few days later that the arguments presented in our story were used to convince the Sioux to return to the reservation. In addition, while a Sioux named White Lance was at Wounded Knee and did visit the massacre site on January 1, the rest of the White Lance story is imagined.

Chapter 7: Easy Eddie & the Hard Road to Redemption

Most of the facts used to create this story came from the following sources:

Cantwell, Robert. “Run, Rabbit, Run.”
Sports Illustrated
, August 27, 1973.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1087714/4/index.htm
.

Ewing, Steve and John B. Lundstrom.
Fateful Rendezvous: The Life of Butch O'Hare
. Naval Institute Press, 1997.