The Roads of War
The Roads of War follows several soldiers from Company H, 30th North Carolina Regiment, as they try to survive the U.S. Civil War. Because of this multi-perspective approach, the novel, Cameron’s first, doesn’t settle into a compelling, focused story until about a third of the way in. At that point, it mostly focuses on Lewis McCormack, a corporal in the company who returned to the regiment’s training camp in the opening chapter, as he leads the unit through the war.
Cameron also shows episodes on the home front, as McCormack’s wife struggles with the effects of debts and his teen daughter fights off unwanted suitors in his absence. Then the novel swings out to focus on another soldier from the company, Private Tandy Strider, and his adventures while on furlough after an injury. The specific battles do not play out blow-for-blow, for the most part.
One aspect of this novel that I appreciated was that Cameron did not do the dance of historical fiction about the antebellum South where the whites are portrayed as virtuously innocent. Yes, the McCormacks are “good” slave owners, but a small bit of the novel is from the perspective of the enslaved man, Henry, and the nuance there as he relates to other slaves and considers the McCormacks is done rather well.
All in all, The Roads of War strips away the romantic, sepia-colored view we too often hold of 19th-century people and events. The novel gives us the people of Civil War-era America and their experiences as they were. While some of the writing could be tighter, I liked the subtlety this novel often displayed. Recommended for those interested in the social history of the U.S. Civil War; the novel contains adult themes, violence, sex, and graphic descriptions.
