The History

1863. Lincoln’s Proclamation frees the slaves, but the reality of equality is long delayed.

1963. At Lincoln’s Memorial the dream of “Free at Last” is proclaimed, but the reality is still incomplete.

Halfway between, in 1913, America has a chance to speed up the day of brotherhood, to put aside racial hatred and bind up the pain of slavery.

It was a road not taken.

Encampment explores that road not taken. In July 1913 54,000 Civil War veterans came to Gettysburg – a now-forgotten, week-long reunion that ended in a gesture of reconciliation between North and South. Reporters kept telegraph wires humming while 100,000 civilians came to see for themselves: could Blue and Gray bind up the nation’s wounds and make peace? They could, and they did… for those who were white.

But what if there had been a deeper healing? What might have happened if 5,000 black veterans had dared to attend? What if not just blue and gray but also black and white had battled through their hatred and regrets to heal history?

"...a believable and fascinating tale with well-developed characters"

- New York Journal of Books


"a fascinating look at the waning lives of those who fought during the Civil War, and the progress of equality"

- Midwest Book Review

"In this beguiling, important novel, Carl Eeman reinvents a world of 1912-14 in which our tortured struggle with Civil War memory and race relations might have had different outcomes... Every serious student and reader of history has wondered “what if?” In Eeman’s haunting characters and dialogues, and in his textured storytelling, Americans can see the genuine tragedy in our story of Civil War remembrance."

— David W. Blight, Yale University, author of Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory