Trotwood's Monthly, Vol. II, No. 2, May, 1906

In Short

This book is an installment of a 1906 Southern literary and agricultural magazine edited and written largely by John Trotwood Moore alongside various contributors. It collects essays on regional history, practical guides for Southern farming, vivid accounts from the Civil War, folk tales, and travel sketches of towns like Florence, Alabama. It has lasted because it preserves the distinct voice, vernacular humor, and complex social texture of the post-bellum American South, offering a window into the everyday preoccupations and romanticized memories of an era transitioning into modernity.

The Story

The volume opens by tracing the historic military roads of the South, exalting Andrew Jackson's decisive campaigns and recounting the tragic clash at Fort Mims, where the Creek warrior Weatherford fought before ultimately finding an unexpected bond of mercy with Jackson. From these sweeping historical vistas, the narrative pivots to the immediate, muddy realities of the Civil War through the eyes of cavalrymen and scouts. Readers follow chaotic skirmishes where soldiers navigate dense thickets, Federal columns appear suddenly around forest bends, and ordinary men display stubborn grit under fire.

The perspective then shifts to the quiet, demanding labor of the land, detailing how Southern farmers can revitalize worn-out soils through liming and the cultivation of alfalfa. Interspersed with these practical lessons are humorous, folksy anecdotes—such as the colorful tall tale of Old Wash, an elderly man who casually announces he has been dead for six weeks, visiting heaven only to find that earthly compassion outweighs rigid creeds.

The journey continues toward the racetracks and stables, where thoroughbred horses like the delicate little mare Cassandra capture the imagination of grieving widows and eager bettors alike. Amid thunderous crowds and shouting callers, the races unfold with nail-biting tension, culminating in thrilling underdog victories on the turf.

Finally, the volume travels down to Florence, Alabama, moving past antebellum plantations, roaring river shoals, and bustling cotton mills. The narrative examines the industrial promise of the Tennessee River, the abundance of local raw materials, and the civic pride of business owners who prioritize community growth over personal renown. It closes by documenting the bustling local commerce, the ubiquity of small-town doctors, and the quiet, traditional virtues of Southern domestic life.

How It Unfolds

• The historical survey opens the volume by contrasting the deliberate military strategies of Washington and Lee with the meteoric brilliance of Andrew Jackson, culminating in the dramatic confrontation between Jackson and the Creek chief Weatherford.
• The cavalry skirmish drops the reader directly into the timberlands of the Civil War, where Major Ben McCulloch Hord and a restless trooper named Mike Kelley suddenly stumble upon an advancing Federal column.
• The agricultural instruction breaks the narrative flow to provide grounded, technical advice on soil chemistry, explaining how to cure sour land with lime and successfully establish multi-year alfalfa crops.
• The theological tall tale introduces Old Wash, who shares a surreal vision of the afterlife involving a merciful stranger, St. Peter, and a surprising revelation about his own domestic arrangements back on earth.
• The racetrack drama builds tension at the western course, where a mourning mistress finds solace in her favorite horse, Cassandra, just before an exhilarating, chaotic finish under the wire.
• The industrial excursion concludes the book in Florence, Alabama, surveying the natural geography of the Muscle Shoals, the potential for manufacturing power, and the spirited boosterism of local merchants.

The People

Andrew Jackson emerges as a commanding, intuitive leader who looks past the hatred of a mob to recognize the noble dignity of a defeated enemy. Weatherford, the Creek warrior known as the Red Eagle, stands proudly before his foes, pleading for the lives of starving women and children before earning Jackson's unexpected respect.

Mike Kelley, a loyal and pugnacious Confederate cavalryman, provides fierce comic relief; despite his constant swearing and trouble with unruly mounts, he fights fiercely with an empty pistol and later jokes with his colonel about a runaway charge.

Old Wash is a sharp-witted, aging storyteller who uses deadpan humor and imaginative parables about heaven to comment on his difficult marriage and the trials of rural life.

The unnamed young mistress, mourning her late husband, pours her affection into a slender racehorse named Cassandra, wrestling with her attachments as she navigates the social world of the track.

Finally, a host of local Alabama figures—such as the ambitious real estate agents, the civic-minded mill owners, and the hardworking hotel managers—drive the economic and social life of Florence, valuing community prosperity above individual vanity.

In Its Own Voice

The battles of all other commanders—the slow, ponderous, red-tape, unimaginative stands and retreats of Washington; the stubborn, mathematical defenses of the perfectly poised Lee; the ponderous hammerings of the stoical, machine-made Grant—all these were generals after a rule and a school.

This observation opens John Trotwood Moore's historical essay by sharply contrasting conventional military leaders with the unconventional genius of the Jacksons.

“Och, colonel, now it’s yerself that’s fond of a joke. Whin we swung out in the lane ’n ye told us to charge, if ye had jist tipped me a wink, and said, ‘Mike, me lad, I don’t mane it, I’m only joking,’ me head would be as sound this minit as your own.”

Mike Kelley speaks up with characteristic Irish wit after his commander teases him about his horse carrying him straight into enemy lines.

“I wuz a mighty leetle gal den’ but I ’members hearin’ de ole folk say dat dey heerd sumpin’ drap.”

An ancient Tennessee woman claims a preposterous age of over a century in a humorous anecdote submitted by a reader.

What It's Really About

The book explores the reinvention and preservation of Southern identity in the decades following the Civil War. It grapples with the tension between a romanticized, chivalric past—embodied by historic military paths, thoroughbred racing, and folkloric storytelling—and the urgent demands of modern industrial and agricultural progress. Beneath the plot and essays lies a persistent inquiry into what constitutes true nobility: whether in the instinctive mercy shown by a general to a wartime enemy, the honest toil required to enrich exhausted farmland, or the fierce community loyalty of small-town merchants. It questions how a region can honor its complex history while harnessing its natural resources to build a prosperous future.

Why Read It Today

Modern readers who appreciate local color, historical artifacts, and the rich textures of regional American folklore will find much to love here. Reading it feels like sitting on a wide Southern porch while an eccentric, well-read narrator flips through old scrapbooks, swapping stories about war heroes, stubborn mules, and fast horses.

However, readers must approach the text with honesty regarding its historical difficulties. The book contains period-specific racial dialects, paternalistic attitudes toward African Americans typical of the post-bellum South, and an uncritical romanticization of the agrarian plantation economy. Furthermore, its abrupt shifts between technical farming manuals, war memoirs, and promotional town guides can feel disjointed. Yet, for those willing to navigate these dated perspectives, the reward is a vivid, unfiltered archival snapshot of a region trying to understand itself at the dawn of the twentieth century.