Elizabeth Rogers wrote the book, Yankee Gold, a historical fiction novel focusing on the Civil War. I became infatuated with the Civil War somewhere between Harriet Tubman and Gone With the Wind.
This book has such a different perspective on the Civil War, I had to
stop Beth Rogers and talk to her about it. The interview below captures
some key questions I thought you might also be interested in:
1. How did you choose the title?
The fact that the Union mined for gold
and silver during the Civil War and for at least two years afterward is
the motivation for my protagonist to go to New Mexico.
2. A novel doesn’t usually reveal the
true names of characters. Why have you identified your protagonist and
named him a Civil War spy?
Because Steve Elkins never admitted he
served either side in the Civil War. The story begins in New Mexico a
little over a year before the war ended. Little has been told of this
important era in New Mexico. Around four thousand Texas Confederates
invaded New Mexico in 1861. They were met by four thousand New Mexican
and Colorado Volunteers in the winter of 1861-1862. The Confederates
were defeated and forced out of New Mexico by the summer of 1862. The
fight was for the southwestern gold fields. Once Elkins arrived in New
Mexico at the end of 1863 he became the leading attorney in the
territory. He was so controversial that someone had to tackle why his
story has been avoided. His personal history as a spy, the Union’s role
in gold mining with private investors, and the government’s tolerance of
Indian debt slavery were all issues the government preferred the public
wouldn’t know.
3. How much of the story is true?
The events of the story are true. I
placed them on time lines and eventually merged the time lines. My
character, Elkins, served in the official capacities portrayed. I had to
jump to several conclusions in the story, but the facts which followed
made those conclusions reasonable. Naturally, when dialogue can’t be
verified, the story must be labeled a novel. I can’t know that closely
what these people thought or their entire motivations.
4. How did you get interested in this story?
My family came to West Virginia where
Steve Elkins made his home in his later years. We were complete
strangers and we settled in the town named for him. My father was born
in Cuba of American parents and Cuba was his home until he left college.
He was curious about Elkins’ mysterious New Mexico past and encouraged
my research of it.
5. How long did it take for you to write Yankee Gold?
The research took twenty years. I taught
myself to write at the same time I chased down the story. It went
through countless drafts. In the beginning I wrote one other book, a
murder mystery, which took nine months. I also wrote a monograph for the
New Mexico Historical Review on Elkins as president of New Mexico’s first bank early in my research.
6. What did you find most interesting in your character?
Steve Elkins was first and foremost an
abolitionist. He was a Republican, but clearly had the backbone to act
independently and follow his own conscience. It was interesting to see
how this worked out in the story.
7. Was it difficult to write from a male point of view?
At first it was. That’s why I wrote
another book in nine months from a female POV first. However, when I saw
how the events of Yankee Gold reflected such a male-oriented society,
the story became far easier to portray.
8. When did you decide to become an author?
It was when I was somewhere between eight and ten years
old. My father and I speculated on this story often, given the few facts
we could obtain. Almost immediately solving the questions which arose
became an obsession for me.
9. How did you research the novel?
I first looked for every possible bit
of evidence of what Elkins did during the Civil War in Missouri. I
traveled to New Mexico and stayed with a relative. I arranged to meet
with several experts on this period of New Mexico’s history. I followed
their advice and branched out into the various issues of Elkins’ career
in this decade. I copied microfilm on the Bosque Redondo and the
official records of the War of the Rebellion. I copied the records of
Elkins’ service as
U. S. Attorney. I finally copied the
Santa Fe newspapers for the entire decade. I bought all the books
possible on the period and compared the material against the newspaper
accounts. I found the first scene in a diary account of the daughter of
the man who was Elkins’ mentor. That wasn’t until 2003. Information
available from the internet grew enormously during the period I
researched the story. The research was intensive and bore a lot of
fruit.
Beth Rogers was born in New York City and lived in West Virginia for over twenty years. Her career includes writing at Living magazine in New York, teaching in Virginia and West Virginia, selling and brokering real estate in North Carolina, and as a federal clerk and courtroom deputy in Richmond, Virginia. She has been published in the New Mexico Historical Review. She is a member of the Virginia Historical Society and is active in several Virginia writers’ clubs.
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