Review: "Orphan Hero: A Novel of the Civil War" by John Babb

This is the story of Benjamin Franklin Windes who is the great grandfather of the author. As a young child of eight, B. F. (as he would be called later in life) leaves home to head for California because he mistakenly thinks his father has gone there. He can’t stay at his home in Jeffersonville, Indiana because his step-mother insists that he spends all his days taking care of their farm with no time for school or visiting his beloved aunt. He sets out to find his father by joining a wagon train and he never returns home. He is an enterprising young man and manages to make money by being a barber. This follows his life from the gold fields of California to a blockade runner during the Civil War to finally a store owner in Keetsville.

This is a work of fiction although it is based on B. F. Windes’ journal. There are moments of brilliance during the story where I didn’t want to put it down. There were also times of dull reading that made this story monotonous. The title is also misleading because he wasn’t an orphan and it wasn’t about the Civil War. He was a blockade runner for the South during the war and there was still guerilla warfare around Keetsville when he was living there but there was nothing about particular battles. I also felt that quite a few loose ends were not tied up in different areas of the story.

I did find many parts of this story fascinating. Even as a very young boy, B.F. is very enterprising and takes care of himself, a tradition that continues through the rest of his life. He sees many tragedies but still continues to preserve. This is a very valuable lesson that is as valid today as it was then. Pick this story up if you are interesting in the happenings in America from 1849 to 1866.