The hottest novel in America is the heartwarming “Cold Mountain,” which won the National Book Award for fiction.
The best-selling debut effort by Charles Frazier of Raleigh, N.C., has a prestigious pedigree. “Cold Mountain,” in many ways, is “The Odyssey” with collards and tintypes — a tale of love overcoming separation set in North Carolina late in the Civil War.
On one hand, “Cold Mountain” (Atlantic Monthly Press; $24) is the story of Inman, a wounded Confederate who decides enough blood (including his own) has been shed; he deserts and tries to return home to the wild uplands of Haywood County.
Cold Mountain is his destination because it is where his intended awaits. What with the coming of war and the passing of her father, city-bred Ada is largely stranded there. That’s the other narrative: how she and a savvy mountain waif named Ruby struggle to survive — and await Inman’s return.
Now, this isn’t as simple as it sounds. Inman must elude the freebooting Home Guard and predatory federal scavengers; Ada’s ramshackle farm must be made self-sufficient.
The back-and-forth story line takes a path as twisted as Inman’s: An abundance of flashbacks flesh out the plot and main characters, adding irony and realism.
Frazier writes with detail and care; much is based on real people, events and places. Inman’s journey, for example, stems from a relative’s actual Civil War experience. And the sites in “Cold Mountain” ring true: You can actually go out and see many Inman, Ada and Ruby places that Frazier so vividly describes.
Here’s a partial driving tour of the book.
Fredericksburg National Battlefield (Virginia)
In the book: Remember, much of “Cold Mountain” is told in scene-shifting flashbacks; that’s great for a movie adaptation but makes driving the novel chapter-by-chapter an impossibility.
In various places, Inman recalls the horrors of Civil War combat. He wasn’t harmed at this battle, fought in December 1862, but the slaughter of Union infantry before his eyes was dreadful.
From the book: “Some of the men were barefoot. Many wore homemade uniforms in the mute colors that plant dyes make. The Federals were arrayed on the field before them, all newly outfitted. . . . When the Federals charged, the men behind the wall held their fire and taunted them and one called out, “Come on closer, I want them boots. And they let the Federals come as near as twenty paces before shooting them down.”
Where to go: Fredericksburg National Military Park is in Fredericksburg, Va., just off Interstate Highway 95, about 55 miles north of Richmond, Va. Take Exit 130 and watch for signs. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, closed Christmas Day. Admission: free; $3 per adult as of Jan. 1 for a seven-day pass good there and at nearby Chancellorsville, Wilderness and Spotsylvania battlefield parks. Details: 540-373-6122, site hours.
Petersburg National Battlefield (Virginia)
In the book: Inman vividly remembers the carnage here too. In the summer of 1864, the federal noose around Petersburg, Va., and Richmond settled into trench warfare. The U.S. Army detonated a huge explosion under rebel trenches; the surprise worked, but Federal troops pouring into the bomb crater were trapped and slaughtered. Later at Petersburg, a bullet grazed Inman’s neck and removed him from combat.
From the book: “Inman’s regiment led the attack into the crater, and the fighting inside was of a different order from any he had done before. It was war in its most antique form, as if hundreds of men were put into a cave, shoulder to shoulder, and told to kill each other. There was no room for firing and loading muskets, so they mainly used them as clubs. Inman saw one little drummer boy beating a man’s head in with an ammunition box.”
Where to go: Petersburg National Battlefield is off I-85, just south of Petersburg. The Battle of the Crater is Stop No. 8 on the park’s driving tour. Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission: $4; free for 16 and under. Details: 804-732-3531, site hours.
Downtown Raleigh (North Carolina)
In the book: “Cold Mountain” begins here, where Inman is in a military hospital recuperating from his neck wound. He recovers slowly as companions die slowly. Inman decides to desert and return to western North Carolina.
From the book: “Beyond a row of young trees rose the capitol, an impressive domed pile of stones. It was only a scant shade darker than the high clouds through which the sun shone as a gray disc already declining in the west. . . . Curtains blew out of open office windows and waggled in the breeze. Above the dome, a dark circle of vultures swirled in the oyster sky . . .”
Where to go: No Civil War hospital building is extant in central Raleigh. One just east of the capitol became a home for old soldiers; a N.C. Transportation Department building is now on its site. The state capitol Inman described still stands. Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, 1-5 p.m. Sundays. Tour information: 919-733-4994, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. The capitol grounds hold a number of statues honoring North Carolinians in the Civil War. Across from it at 5 E. Edenton St. is the North Carolina Museum of History, which has artifacts from those times and that conflict. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sundays. Admission: free. Details: 919-715-0200, museum hours.
Cape Fear River (North Carolina)
In the book: Inman, now definitely on the run — he got into a brawl with three men who were suspicious of him — comes to a river too deep to ford. The ferryman took his $5-to-cross flatboat elsewhere, but the ferryman’s daughter takes Inman to the west bank of the upper Cape Fear in a dugout for $20.
From the book: “Before they could climb into the boat, Inman saw great greasy bubbles rising to the surface thirty feet out from the bank. They shone in the moonlight as they broke, and they moved in a direction counter to the river’s flow, going upstream at about the pace of a man walking. The night was windless and still, and there were no other sounds than the water blubbering and the bugs skirling in the pines.”
Where to go: The Cape Fear is formed at the Chatham-Lee County line, at the junction of the Deep and Haw Rivers; Inman would have crossed it northeast of Sanford. From Raleigh, take U.S. 1 southwest over the Haw, through Moncure, and then over the Deep. Take a quick left onto U.S. Bike 1; head south a couple of miles to Lower River Road (it forks to the left). Turn left at N.C. 42; the river you’ll cross in a couple of miles is the Cape Fear. Go down to the riverside at Avents Ferry, a public-access point on the far side of the bridge.
On the Deep River (North Carolina)
In the book: Inman heads west, up the Deep River, onto hilly terrain. One night he spies a man about to throw an unconscious woman into the river; Inman intercedes and saves her. It turns out the man, Veasey, is a wayward preacher who got her pregnant — and decided her death would be better than his scandal. Inman returns her to her home in a nearby village; he ties Veasey to a tree there and leaves an explanatory note.
From the book: “Eventually traversing a rocky bluff, the road became a narrow notch between the river below a drop-off and a steep bank of broken rock and dirt grown partly over with brush. Inman did not like his position. He feared the Home Guard would be out and about. . . . It would be a poor place to make a stand against armed riders.”
Where to go: There’s no highway that follows the Deep River, nor an actual town on it. Close by, though, is House in the Horseshoe, north of Carthage at 324 Alston House Rd. It’s on a hill from which you can see its tree-lined edge on the Deep River; Inman would’ve walked right by it. This N.C. Historic Site in Moore County was built in 1772 for Col. Philip Alston, an area grandee. Alston, by the way, was later a murder suspect; his ghost is said to haunt the premises. Hours at the restored plantation house: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sundays. Nov. 1-March 31: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-4 p.m. Sundays; closed Mondays. Admission: free. Details: 910-947-2051, site hours.
A lonely roadside (North Carolina)
In the book: Inman continues west slowly, trying to dodge Home Guard patrols. He does re-encounter Veasey, who escaped the village with little more than his life and who is now looking for a new line of work in the west. They continue on the road, a wary Inman keeping the immoral preacher out of trouble and at arm’s length. After several adventures they help a wild rustic, who takes them to his shack where there’s liquor and a trio of floozies. The man fetches the Home Guard, which adds Inman and Veasey to their chain of deserters and Union sympathizers; the prisoners are marched east for several days. The guards abruptly decide to murder their captives at a roadside.
From the book: “When the firing was done, the Guard stood as if unclear as to what the next step might be. One of them seemed taken by some fit or spell, and he danced about and sang Cotton Eye Joe and capered until another man hit him at the base of his spine with the stock of his musket. Finally one said, We’d best get them under ground.
“They went about the job poorly, just digging out a shallow bed and strewing the men in and covering them over with dirt about to the depth that one would plant potatoes. When done, they mounted up and rode away.”
Where to go: Such incidents did happen during the Civil War, though markers noting them are rare. Though not on Inman’s route, one such place is near the North Carolina-Tennessee line, at Shelton Laurel in Madison County. In January 1863, 13 men and boys from here were arrested in the wake of a pro-Unionist raid on Marshall. Their families were told the prisoners were headed for jail in Knoxville; instead they were murdered.
To reach the massacre site from Asheville, take U.S. Highway 19 North to U.S. 70/25. Take U.S. 70/25 North to N.C. 208. You’ll see a massacre marker when you reach N.C. 212; follow N.C. 212 East (toward Whiterock) 6 miles to reach the site. It’s on private property, but you can see it from N.C. 212.
For area details, call the Madison County Chamber of Commerce, 704-689-9351, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays, to 2 p.m. Saturdays.
West of Winston-Salem (North Carolina)
In the book: Inman’s head is grazed by an executioner’s bullet; they presume him dead and bury him in a shallow grave. Rooted up by hungry hogs, this lone and bloodied survivor staggers along until a slave finds Inman and hides him in a barn. He’s eventually well enough to travel; the slave gives him a map and advice.
From the book: “After he had walked for the better part of a week … he could see the Blue Ridge hanging like a drift of smoke across the sky ahead. It took him three more nights to pass through a place called Happy Valley, a long broad swath of cropland and pastureland at the foot of the mountains. There was too much open ground to feel good about walking by day, and by night there was pistol fire and torchlight, the roads so full of dark riders that Inman spent as much time hiding in ditches and haystacks as walking.”
Where to go: The slave advises Inman to head toward Wilkes County because pacifist Moravians there may be sympathetic to him; also, to avoid Salisbury because Confederate patrols were on the roads looking for Northern soldiers who just broke out of the prisoner-of-war camp there.
Old Salem gives you a taste of Moravian life in old North Carolina; it’s on South Main Street in Winston-Salem. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 12:30-5 p.m. Sundays. Admission: $14; $8 for ages 6-16; 5 and under, free. Details: 888-OLD-SALEM anytime.
Federal raiders liberated the Salisbury POWs and destroyed their prison in 1865; the prison burial ground nearby is now Salisbury National Cemetery. Cemetery grounds are never closed; get a walking-tour pamphlet at the office, which is open 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. most weekdays. Details: 704-636-2661, office hours.
Happy Valley is in central Caldwell County; N.C. 268 follows the Yadkin upriver from Wilkesboro to Patterson. Happy Valley is just east of where U.S. 321 crosses N.C. 268, about 5 miles north of Lenoir.
Grandfather Mountain (North Carolina)
In the book: Inman, in extremely poor health, makes his way into the Blue Ridge, then wanders southwest along the ridge tops. He meets an old woman who lives in a wagon in the wilderness. She kills one of her goats to feed him and gives him natural medicines.
From the book: “Inman looked at the big Grandfather Mountain and then he looked beyond it to the lesser mountains as they faded off into the southwest horizon, bathed in faint smoky haze. Waves of mountains. For all the evidence the eye told, they were endless. The gray overlapping humps of the farthest peaks distinguished themselves only as slightly darker values of the pale gray air. . . . They graded off like the tapering of pain from the neck wound as it healed.”
Where to go: Grandfather Mountain is 2 1/2 hours northwest of Charlotte. To get there, go west on I-85 to U.S. 321 (in Gastonia); take U.S. 321 northwest to the Blue Ridge Parkway (near Blowing Rock); take the parkway 15 miles south; watch for signs after you cross the Linn Cove viaduct. This is a 5,000-acre parcel, and 5,964-foot Grandfather Mountain is in the middle of it. Besides the famous Mile-High Swinging Bridge — a footbridge that’s 5,300 feet above sea level there are wildlife habitats. Hours: 8 a.m.-dusk daily. Admission: $10; $5 for ages 4-12; free for 3 and under. Details: 800-468-7325, park hours.
Southwest of Asheville (North Carolina)
In the book: After more delays — Inman saves a widow and her hog from Federal raiders; he helps another single mother bury a dead child — Inman sees Cold Mountain in the distance.
From the book: “He rose and took a wide stance on the rock and stood and pinched down his eyes to sharpen the view across the vast prospect to one far mountain. It stood apart from the sky only as the stroke of a poorly inked pen, a line thin and quick and gestural but the shape slowly grew plain and unmistakable. It was to Cold Mountain he looked. He had achieved a vista of what for him was homeland.”
Where to go: A nice and easy spot to see Cold Mountain looming in the distance is from the southbound Blue Ridge Parkway (you’ll be approximately following Inman’s route). After crossing U.S. 276, pull over at the first overlook that faces west.
