Dugan's Landing
by
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Dugan's Landing
September 1864
I returned to Dugan's Landing in the Autumn of 1864 after having suffered severe damage to my left leg while serving as a medic on the battlefield. The Confederacy called it "The War Between The States," the North called it "The War of the Rebellion" among other things. Though I would never point a gun at another human being I had a romantic notion that I would be helping to preserve what I considered was a gracious way of life in the South by serving in some capacity. I had met Matt Stansfield in January of 1861 when he was visiting his Aunt Folsom at Clintonville here in Western Virginia. He was from Richmond, Virginia and was fired with the same enthusiasm only he too was adamant about not bearing arms. We volunteered together in the Autumn of that year. It was Matt who pulled me away from the battlefield and who saved both me and my leg...but I will have more to say of him later.
After the initial relief and joy of being home I became despondent due, no doubt, to the constant pain in my leg. One day Brady suggested I write down my experience of that conflict...to get it out of my system but I had no desire to relive those sights or to remember the cries of the wounded and the dying or of the stench, the blood, the awful abysmal waste of it all. I simply declined. Then sweet, gentle Mary, Dugan's wife suggested that I might like to sketch again or I might like to recapture the things that had once given me pleasure:
"Didn't you do some sketches of Kilmarnock?" she once asked or "What about writing about Westford which inspired you to volunteer in the first place?" Eventually I thought the sketches might be possible but I had no idea where I could find anything. They weren't in my room. Mary, down on a footstool began to rummage through the cupboards below the bookshelves; eventually she came upon a box which contained the sketches and a series of diaries I had kept since we had left Ireland in 1851:
"You could write a history for future Driscolls and Newtons," she said. But somehow I wondered if there would be future Newtons. The damage from the groin down had been extensive. As the days passed I began to form my thoughts towards writing an account of how we came to be living in this fine mansion a mere thirteen years after we came to America as immigrant boys. Here then is the account of the lives of Dugan Connor Driscoll born in 1835 and Liam Patrick Newton also born in 1835 within one week of each other and their journey across the Atlantic to find fame and fortune! (Ha!)
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About the Book
The great potato famine in Ireland between 1845-1849 forced some two million Irish to look to foreign lands to survive. They emigrated to Australia, Canada and the United States where their arrival changed the face of America.
Among these emigrants are Dugan Driscoll and his cousin Paddy Newton, who work their way across the Atlantic on a steam-sailing ship. They find life in New York city daunting! But Dugan, even at sixteen, is smart, capable and determined to make good. They are helped along the way by other Irish; Dugan never forgets a favor - he carries these friends along with him through the years.
When he becomes preoccupied with success. Dugan finds no time for his family making Paddy the actual head, knitting the family into one cohesive whole.
This book is about overcoming adversity by seizing chances; it is about duty, loyalty and friendship; above all it is about love which is sometimes misplaced.
About the Author
Joan Gidding. British born received a B.A., and an M.A., in English and American Literature from the university of Maryland. She has written several short stories one of which won the Herbert L. Hughes Award.
Remembering that both maternal and paternal grandmothers were Irish but deceased before she could meet them. She became interested in the Irish Diaspora which prompted her to write Dugan's Landing. She lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her husband. They have one son.