No Drums: A Historical Novel

Ithaca, New York: American Agriculturist, Inc, 1951. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 0x0x0. Crispell, Roger. First edition. Jacket edges lightly rubbed. 1951 Hard Cover. viii, 280 pp. No Drums takes readers into the homes and hearts of the individuals, families, and communities on the home front of the Civil War in Tioga County, New York. First published in 1951, this novel is both a dramatic story of war and a moving tale about living in its shadow. Through a vividly drawn cast of characters centered around George and Nancy Wilson and their family and friends, E. R. Eastman re-creates the daily life of rural America in the mid-nineteenth century—how crops were planted, cultivated, and harvested, how meals were prepared for the table—and the debates that took place in many American homes about the reasons, course, and costs of the Civil War. His narrative moves easily from the small towns of upstate New York to the front lines of war in northern Virginia and into the White House, where Nancy Wilson and her daughter-in-law, Ann, plead with President Lincoln to pardon Nancy's son, Mark, unjustly court-martialed for collaborating with the enemy.