Hope Never to See It: A Graphic History of Guerrilla Violence during the American Civil War Andrew Fialka 9780820369556

Hope Never to See It illustrates two exceptional incidents of occupational and guerrilla violence in Missouri during the American Civil War. The first is a Union spy's two-week-long murder spree targeting civilians, and the second is a pro-Confederate guerrillas' mutilation of almost 150 U.S. troops.

The men leading the atrocities (Jacob Terman, alias Harry Truman, and "Bloody" Bill Anderson) weren't so different. Both the Union spy and the infamous Confederate guerrilla claimed to be avenging the deaths of their families, operated under orders from military officials, and were hard drinkers. Their acts outline the terror inflicted on both sides of the struggle.

This book's use of sequential art displays these grisly realities to mute the war's glorification and to help prompt a modern, meaningful reconciliation with the war. The moral ambiguities contained within this story call into question our understanding of the laws of war and the ways in which wars end.

ANDREW FIALKA is associate professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University. He has co-directed multiple digital history projects at UGA's Center for Virtual History (eHistory.org). He lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Beginning with Michael Fellman's Inside War, scholars of guerrilla warfare in the American Civil War have long married substance with style, using the fullest possible lexicon to describe scenes that are brutally indescribable, if not totally unimaginable. Andrew Fialka and Anderson Carman take this approach to a new level with Hope Never to See It. This improbable team of historian and sequential artist have achieved something truly excellent through their merger of Fialka's excellent research and wordsmithing with Carman's knack for visualizing and depicting a nightmarish world. Terribly, gruesomely resplendent, intellectually invigorating, and historically accurate, Hope Never to See It will change the way that readers think about the Civil War and may even push other scholars to think more creatively about how they present their material.

For the untold westerners who experienced the Civil War as a guerrilla conflict, 'civilian' and 'combatant' were distinctions without a difference. Men, women, and children all found themselves on the front line of a conflict marked by ambush, disguise, backshooting, rape, arson, torture, corpse mutilation, and massacre. Hope Never to See It combines a gripping narrative, cutting-edge historical interpretation, and illustrations that capture the raw brutality of this hyper-local, hyper-personal war to the last knife. Fialka and Carman haven't just pioneered a new way to teach Civil War history-they've caught lightning on the printed page.

The graphic novel format works very well in detailing both narratives, allowing readers to imagine the horror--and uncertainty--of life during guerrilla war. The artwork is vivid and engaging throughout.