The Silent Shore of Memory

Book excerpt: The Silent Shore of Memory chronicles the life of James Barnhill from his days as a young Confederate soldier through the trials of Reconstruction in his native Texas and his later career as a lawyer and judge. After being critically wounded at Gettysburg and a long recuperation in North Carolina, James Barnhill returns to Texas where he battles widespread corruption and vigilante violence during the turmoil of Reconstruction. Although he endures tragedy in his personal life, Barnhill becomes a respected lawyer who defends an African American man accused of rape and represents a titan of the Texas lumber industry in a precedent-setting confrontation with a railroad monopoly controlled by Wall Street financiers. Steeped in the history of the South, The Silent Shore of Memory explores the nuances of views on slavery and the dissolution of the Union, the complexity of race relations and race politics during the thirty years following the Civil War, and the powerful bonds of familial love and friendship.