Battle Scars

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Battle Scars continues the engrossing U.S. Civil War story that Wilson
began in The Flags of War. While the first volume need not have been
read in order to understand the second, such prior exposure would
enhance the reader’s appreciation of the relationships among the main
characters.

Beginning some three weeks after the conclusion of The Flags of War and
spanning the period from April 26, 1862, to September 27, 1863, Battle
Scars reunites cousins Walt and Nate McGregor and Sunday, Nate’s
former plantation slave. The plot finds Walt and the mute Sunday, both
members of the Union army, becoming prisoners of war and Nate, a
Confederate soldier, serving as a guard at Libby prison in Richmond,
Virginia, where Walt is confined and Sunday is carrying out forced
labour. The main storyline involves Walt’s participation in digging an
escape tunnel, while the book’s theme is encapsulated in the work’s
title: all three late adolescents bear emotional scars from the horrific
battlefield and war-related carnage in which they have been either
active participants or spectators. These invisible scars cause each
member of the trio to question his continued participation in the war.

As in The Flags of War, chapters begin by identifying the date and
place of their action, and then each is narrated from the perspective of
either Walt, Nate, or Sunday. Wilson adds an additional stylistic
dimension via letters rendered in reproduced handwriting. Though the
story is self-contained, its ending offers the possibility of yet a
third instalment. Highly recommended.