Time of Drums: A Novel

The Mountain Novels #3

by John Ehle

Dust jacket "Few writers have the ability to emblazon and project an authentic past the way John Ehle has done, and few have his narrative skill. In this new novel he has presented the American Civil War in such a way that it shows the shape of time to come; his characters go on living after the book is closed, and its action continues after its final events. The novel, touching, honest, brutal, funny, sad and sometimes glorious, recounts the fall of an era as seen through the eyes of Owen Wright, a colonel in his thirties, a soldier in the Army of the Confederacy. This is his personal accounting for his feelings and actions during six months of his time spent in winter camp in 1862, time spent at home with his family - where he falls in love again, this time with a widow-girl of nineteen whom he fears he cannot have and cannot forget - and Gettysburg leading his regiment of mountain soldiers. For its authentic portrayal of the Civil War and its compassionate portrayal of love and family, this novel is a powerful, living achievement. Time of Drums is one of four novels John Ehle has written about the Wright and King families. The Land Breakers tells the story of the first settlers in the North Carolina mountains; Time of Drums deals with the period of the Civil War; The Road is the story of the postwar efforts to open up the mountain country; and Lion on the Hearth is about a prosperous mountain family in the depression of the 1930s. John Ehle (pronounced EE-lee), who was born in Asheville and owns a cabin that looks out on the highest peaks in eastern America, 'It has been particularly rewarding for me to write about mountain people, for they seem to have more humor in them than do most others, and more pride. Sometimes I have seen them standing in a field or alongside a road looking off at the horizon, as if listening to voices indistinct, to some far, forgotten reminders of an unremembered country, of another time, of an ancestry obscure...."

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Civil War

Hardcover

First published June 1, 1970

About the author

John Ehle (1925-2018) grew up the eldest of five children in the mountains of North Carolina, which would become the setting for many of his novels and several works of nonfiction. Following service in World War II, Ehle received his BA and MA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he met the playwright Paul Green and began writing plays for the NBC radio series American Adventure. He taught at the university for ten years before joining the staff of the North Carolina governor Terry Sanford, where Ehle was a “one-man think tank,” the governor’s “idea man” from 1962 to 1964. (Sanford once said of Ehle: “If I were to write a guidebook for new governors, one of my main suggestions would be that he find a novelist and put him on his staff.”) Ehle was the author of eleven novels, seven of which constitute his celebrated Mountain Novels cycle, and six works of nonfiction. He had one daughter, actress Jennifer Ehle, with his wife Rosemary Harris, also an actress.

Reviews

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third of the mountain novels about the Wright family who settled in the Appalachian Mountains during the Revolutionary War. Beginning with "The Land Breakers", an all time favorite, continuing with "The Journey of August King", set in 1810, this one shows the third generation coping with the Civil War. Written from the perspective of Owen Wright, it is not the best Civil War novel I've ever read, but it is the best description of the horror of Pickett's Charge during the battle of Gettysburg that has been written. Starting with the officers disbelief at what Lee wanted them to do, the enlisted men's knowledge of certain death crossing that field, the Yanks amazement and respect for the Rebels carrying out orders, through the battle itself and the aftermath, John Ehle puts us right in the middle of it all in the last few chapters of this novel. It was the turning point of the war, and both sides knew it.

Not to make light of the thousands of men killed and wounded during this battle, I'll share an anecdote about the movie "Gettyburg", based on Michael Shaara's novel "The Killer Angels". (Truly one of the best Civil War novels ever written.). On screen the men were lining up in formation to take that suicidal march across that open field right into the Yankee guns and cannons. I turned to my husband and said "They're all going to be killed. Women would never do anything that stupid." I stand by that comment.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You know the Bible says as we approach the last days and the coming of the Lord there'll be confusion in the land."
"It's about time for the Lord to come back then."

Damn, only 12 reviews? This really is one of those "forgotten" classics, easily the best novel about the Civil War I've ever read, and yes, I include Faulkner in that. Inevitably, the shadow of Faulkie hangs unfairly low over North Carolinian Ehle, but if he gave a shit, who knows? I hope he didn't because he excels his fellow Southern predecessor in many ways.
Drums continues the story of the Wrights from The Landbreakers and who appear briefly in The Journey of August King. Colonel Owen Wright has been away from home for years after the death of his wife and his falling out with his Unionist father. Wright rises through the Confederate ranks and fights at famous battles (Ehle invited a fictional brigade for him, but everyone else is real, Stonewall Jackson figures pretty prominently). When he gets sent home to conscript soldiers for the Confederate army, he has to come to terms with his Northern-sympathizing father and brothers and the girl his younger brother knocked up. Naturally, they fall in love. Events hurtle towards Gettysburg, and so on.
There's multiple levels of complex emotion at work here, much more so than anything Faulkner ever wrote, which is why Ehle, who is not immune to beautiful strings of stream-of-consciousness lyricism, is better than Faulkner. Hopefully more people read his books. Hopefully Ehle is being hailed somewhere in the Southern literary world. He writes beautiful and even funny things!

"I've got the runs so bad, Owen, I don't know that I can go into action."
"Fight with your pants down."

[Press 53 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book three in John Ehle's (Ee-Lee) seven-book Appalachian series that Ehle called his "mountain books." Time of Drums tells the story of the Wright family and their mountain community as young men go off to fight the Civil War. Novelist Borden Deal said: "There have been many books about the Civil War; none of them, with the exception of The Red Badge of Courage, have comes close to the dusty, bloody, grinding truth that John Ehle writes about. Time of Drums is not only the story of men launched into a war with uncertain loyalties, but more important, it continues the Wright saga that John Ehle began with The Land Breakers and promises to expand into one of the great fictional sagas of American history."

First published by Harper in 1970 and reissued in 2014 by Press 53 as part of their Carolina Classics Editions imprint.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book by John Ehle. I have never wanted to read a book about the civil war but this book is the fourth book in a series and it is a wonderful series so I had to give this book a try. The focus like all his books are on the people and their relationships. What a terrible time this was for Americans. Literally brother against brother and mob rule. This series has helped me understand the south better. His stories ring true with great writing and characters. Definitely plan on finishing the series of 7 books.
I finished this book today July 3, the date of the Gettysburg battle.

[A Kritzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well,..how do I begin? I am 63 and have been a prolific reader all my life. I have read so many,..that so few books now catch my attention. I have gone years between great reads. I was introduced to John Ehle in a round-about way. Historical fiction is my favorite genre. I also read a lot of Biographies, Science Fiction, General Science, the Classics and lots of History. Anyhow, a year ago a fellow recommended, "The Long Ships" by Frans Bengtsson,....it be a very good Viking saga. I rated it a solid 8.5.

Oh,..did I not mention I use a 10 point system? Sorry. I usually have to decide whether a 7 point book has to be rated a 3 or a 4 here on Goodreads. The choice are not always easy. But few get bumped to a 4 star. I am getting off track. So, after this great read I went back to the fellow that praised it. In his post I noticed he mentioned an author by the name of John Ehle. Who? Never heard of him. Hmmm,...okay,.... I will check him out.

I discovered: "The Land Breakers". What a beautiful read.

His writing was different, plain speaking and moving. Reminded me of the Hemingway, that I read so long ago. I was captivated by the traumas of the early settlers in early Frontier America. What made such a great read? John Ehle would hint at consequences thereby forcing the reader to use their imagination to fill in the gaps. The bear hunt was most memorable. I rated the book a solid 9.5. Almost a perfect 10. I was impressed! On Goodreads, I rated it a 5 star.

Since then, I have read: "The Journey of August", "The Road" and just now, "Time of Drums". Of the three,.."The Road" came the closets to what I consider excellent writing. So,..now on to "The Time of Drums".

I thought it was a real let down.

True, it had its moments, especially with the emotional interactions of the characters. The main plot was actually very good. But the book fell apart in so many sections. Too many times the future events were easy to predict. The Civil War scenes were a major let down. A map or two would have helped. Putting even a small context in the battles and why they mattered would have helped a lot. I was baffled why there was almost no mention of post Gettysburg to the end of the war in 1865. Nothing.

Now,..I will not slight any reader that views this differently. If John Ehle has stirred any interest in the US Civil War era, I urge to read the very best of Bruce Catton. He wrote history like a poet. "This Hallowed Ground" was my favorite. Also consider the Trilogy by Shelby Foote. Finally,..if you really want great battle scene descriptions of the era, consider "Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara and "Cain at Gettysburg" by Ralph Peters. And yes, these authors were merciful! They actually include maps so you can understand the action much better and put context in the battles.

As well,...I am going to give you a great lead. If you enjoyed "The Land Breakers" as much as I, you must read "Frontiersmen" by Allan Eckert. That be a much, much better read! Same era but much more intense, and I take noting away from "The Land Breakers".

So far I have read 4 of John Ehle novels. I will read him again sometime. I just hope to recapture the magic of my first read by him. In the mean time, I most likely be reading some more Historical Fiction. Maybe something by Conn Iggulden.

[Sydney E · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow, this book exceeded my expectations. humans are so multi-faceted. such a well written and constructed novel.
“it is amazing how misery helps the mind to recall and the heart to care.”
“all my instincts are brighter, now that it is spring. even my sorry prospects appear better. the colors in the grass and sky are brighter, everything excites me: the trees, the budding of the bushes, even the roosters strutting about the roadside.”
“no point in asking what the theme of it is to be, for life works out its own themes.”
when the two army bands played Home, Sweet Home together 😭 and then everyone cheered at the end of the song 😭😭😭 shit got to me
“my men are cooking breakfast and complaining about the chills they feel and their muscle pains. how lucky they are to be alive. how fond tonight they will be of this morning’s health.”
“i felt as if i had lodged myself in a massive mound of fate, that i was a speck on the flesh of this elephantine animal, and was bound to ride it on its mad course.”
“quiet now, except for a group of yanks softly singing John Brown’s Body. A beautiful song.” 😭😭😭😭
“let god forgive us for what we do with what we have, for what we do to the straggly woods and the wide fields.”
i think i like this one as much as if not more than the land breakers. i think this one will be sticking with me for a while. i’ve read nothing else like it.

[Brian E Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time of Drums is a 1970 novel by North Carolinian John Ehle, the third chronologically in his seven book Mountain Novels series about the Wright and King families and their settlement of a North Carolina Appalachian town called Harristown between 1779 through the 1930s. I read the first novel, The Land Breakers, about the initial settlement of the town between 1779 and 1784 featuring the protagonist Irish immigrant Mooney Wright. I then read the second novel, The Journey of August King, which takes place in 1815 and is about the second generation of Harristown residents, including the title character, August King, Mooney Wright does play a role in the book which helps tie the stories together

This third novel is about the third generation of Wrights in Harristown during the Civil War and features Mooney Wright’s grandson Owen Wright as the narrator and main protagonist. Owen is an officer in the Confederate Army. He is a very skilled battlefield commander and leader of men, with his troops coming from his own North Carolina mountain area. Owen is also very ambitious and crafty at achieving his goals, factors accounting for his rise in rank, his rise in the esteem of General Jackson and his rise in resentment from some of his less skilled fellow officers. As a result, the Confederate Army scenes involve political interactions and scheming between the officers in addition to the scenes of military preparation and battle. The Confederate Army scenes, which take up most of the book, involve the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg preparations and battles.

Based on perusing other reviews, I had anticipated the battle scenes to be less clear and below the standard of Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels or Bruce Catton’s non-fiction Civil War series, both of which I have read. So I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself tremendously enjoying the closing pages of the Gettysburg Battle scenes. I found them so well-written and compelling that I read the last 100 pages in one sitting. While I found Ehle’s descriptions to be more narrow in scope than Shaara’s, what he did describe of Gettysburg was clear and vibrant. My prior reading may have helped with my clarity as did my having a map of the Gettysburg battle on hand for reference.

While this book’s wartime storyline may not have been quite as good as Shaara’s, it benefited greatly by the addition of Owen Wright’s compelling personal storyline. Woven in with the Army scenes are scenes back in Harristown, largely when Owen and his troops return to the Harristown area to help attract or draft new recruits. Returning with Owen is his younger brother Woofer who has recently joined Owen’s troop and greatly admires Owen. The personal storylines involve Owen’s relations with the area residents along with significant family drama in his relations with his parents, two older brothers, sister and Woofer. The primary personal storyline concerns the love triangle involving Owen and Woofer’s mutual love for the widow Sory Crawford.

I found Owen to be a fascinating hero, with many attractive traits but also unattractive, self-centered ones. These made him a very appealing hero to me and one worthy of the empathy I gave him during the storytelling. I couldn’t help but root for him in both his personal and Army ambitions even when his actions hurt innocent others. I thought the book’s overall characterization to be excellent with various residents and military personnel portrayed as fully fleshed out characters.

Overall, I appreciated the drama in both the personal and wartime storylines. The love triangle story, while admittedly melodramatic, was especially engaging and enthralling to me. Especially illuminating to me was Ehle’s portrayal of the conflicting loyalties in the North Carolina mountain communities, evidenced by Owen’s father and brother Jesse being Unionist while Owen and Woofer were Confederates. It reminded me that these weren’t slave-owning people and the Virginia mountain region had even chose to remain in the Union as the new state of West Virginia.

I did feel like the writing did not contain the beautiful vivid descriptions I found in The Landbreakers. Yet I thought the depictions of the war scenes were very vivid so, as I attribute my perceived lack of beauty to the fact that Ehle’s descriptive skills were used to portray the ugly subject of war, I somewhat excuse this deficiency.

So, while this was not as good a book as The Land Breakers, I have decided to rate it as 5 rather than the 4+ stars I had considered rating it though most of the novel. I have elevated it to 5 stars largely due to:
- Its wonderful depiction of Gettysburg that compelled me to finish the last 100 pages of the book in a sitting, and
- My extreme fondness for the flawed but incredibly attractive hero, Owen Wright.

I rate Time of Drums as 5 stars.

[Betty McMahon · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does he do it? Everyone should read John Ehle--for unbelievable dialogue, lyrical descriptions along with brutal reality.

[Caleb Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book three of Ehle's "Mountain Novels" series sets a few of the Wrights and Kings, whose ancestors settled the primitive Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina, in Virginia and parts North, as they fight in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The book's narrator, Owen Wright, is the grandson of Mooney Wright, whose life was chronicled in the first book of the Mountain Novels series *The Land Breakers.* Though much of the book is set on sites of the Civil War, there is a return to Harristown to conscript folks from the old homeplace - whose surnames by now are familiar to readers of Ehle's books - into the Confederate Army.

I've noted in reviews of Ehle's other books that action is not really the author's bailiwick, but his descriptive writing of both the Appalachian landscape, the Civil War battlefields, and thought processes of the characters is very deep and rewarding. There is - by Mountain Novel standards - a bit of a love triangle scandal involving Owen, his younger brother Woofer, and the widow Sory Crawford - who both men pine for while she carries one of the men's child.

Trigger Warning: True to the setting (and that this book was written in the 60s), there is use of the 'N-word' with a 'hard-R' throughout. Though there is less gore regarding the treatment of slaves as Ehle has written in other books. I think this has more to do with writing a period-accurate account than Ehle simply being a wanton racist. Indeed, a quick peer into his other works suggest that his views on race and his work chronicling the struggle met by people of color through the 50s and 60s would reveal his progressive stance on the issue, especially given the timing and culture when some of his works on this topic were written.

Lastly, *Time of Drums* is yet another reminder that the Civil War remains a stain on our nation's storied history. But that not all those who fought for the Confederacy were pro-slavery, white supremacists. Yet I think Ehle also highlights those in this camp without attempting to apologize on their behalf for their tyrrany and terrorism of slaves. The tough part about writing historical fiction from this period is that American History is rather dark...and it does the reader no favors to whitewash these events.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the descriptions of warfare are often difficult to handle, the writing is so strong and forceful that you can't help but be drawn into the narrative. I love John Ehle's writing, and I'm sorry that I only discovered it after his death earlier this year. The cadence of his prose is pure Appalachian mountain as are his characters. In this Civil War drama, he depicts the conflicts, societal and internal, that are specific to the mountain people. This is a region deeply divided in loyalties. Through the personal story of Owen Wright (the third generation of a family that settled the region in an earlier Ehle book), we are exposed to all these conflicts.
Not all of John Ehle's books are easily available, but searching for them is worth the effort.

[Faye Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As part of Ehle's Mountain Series, this book continues to follow the mountain people of North Carolina as they get caught up in the Civil War. It's not a pretty novel, but a realistic look at families and relationships as their loyalties to their country and to each other are tested. For me, it dragged a bit in some of the battleground descriptions, but overall, this was a gritty, honest look at life during that time, in that place. Ehle is an outstanding writer.

[Don Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is available at Press 53 in Winston-Salem, NC. I’m reading all seven of the Mountain Novels by John Ehle. This is the fourth and I believe it is the best Civil War novel I’ve read. John Ehle was a great American novelist and deserves to be widely read today.

[Mark Buckley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent novel about a family and the effects of the Civil War on the people of the N.C. mountains. A love story and a war story combined. John Ehle is a superb story teller and writer. The Gettysburg battle descriptions are brilliant too.

[Darcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly marvelous. Beautifully written, thoroughly compelling until the very last word on the very last page. Incredibly moving and a powerful and intimate view of the Civil War. Highly recommend.

[Wendy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This continues the story of the Wright family, this time Owen Wright (and his family), the grandson of Mooney Wright from The Land Breakers. I agree with Borden Deal who said, "There have been many books about the Civil War; none of them, with the exception of The Red Badge of Courage, have come close to the dusty, bloody, grinding truth that John Ehle writes about."

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent writing persists, as in all Ehle novels. Slightly lower rating since the Civil War isn't really my bag. Still, best Civil War novel I've ever read.

[Laura]

Very graphic, disgusting, depressing book about the Civil War. Were all wars as senseless and poorly managed as the description of this one?