The Parting: A Story of West Point on the Eve of the Civil War

It is July 18, 1861 in Winchester, Virginia. The Civil War has begun, and Lieutenant John Pelham, formerly of the West Point Class of 1861, is about to play a pivotal role in the First Battle of Bull Run. The confident Lieutenant Pelham bears little resemblance to the seventeen-year-old who journeyed alone five years earlier from Jacksonville, Alabama, to West Point, New York, to attend the United States Military Academy. As he immerses himself in West Point, both Pelham's life and his beloved country see substantial change. While Pelham and his classmates witness the unraveling of the Union and the birth of the Confederacy, Pelham meets Clara Bolton, a Philadelphian belle who captures his heart-all while Pelham and his compatriots are preparing for the reality of combat. Told against the backdrop of slavery and states' rights, the Democratic and Republican Parties, the fire-eaters of the South and the abolitionists of the North, The Parting portrays how profoundly historical events di

ForeWord Clarion Review
 
The Parting: A Story of West Point on the Eve of the Civil War
Richard Barlow Adams
Five Stars (out of Five)

Set in the year before the start of the Civil War, The Parting captures both the excitement and tension of that troubling and divisive time in American history. Although a full third of the novel is devoted to what may seem a frivolous romance between cadets and visiting college girls during a week in the summer of 1860, this element of the storyline is more than just light entertainment. It provides a scrupulous look into the way the young, privileged elite of the time comported themselves in study and play, how they treated one another, and how they viewed their world and the roles they felt required to play in it.

The romance also provides a backdrop for the real story of the book: a country and a class driven apart by conflicting loyalties and beliefs on issues of family, politics, region, and, of course, slavery.  The characters' opinions on these controversial issues drive the plot and propel the narrative through the remainder of that last, sweet summer of 1860 and into the increasingly contentious fall and winter before the outbreak of war the following spring.

All in all, and despite the heady issues of the day, Adams' writing is charming, entertaining, and at times even light...a delightful yet poignant look at a generation--and a country--about to lose its innocence in the fires of civil war.
 
Mark G. McLaughlin