The Role of Desertion in Cold Mountain
The novel Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier follows a Confederate deserter, Inman, and his odyssey to return home. On his journey Inman faces the Home Guard multiple times. He is somewhat successful at evading them and death until the end of the novel. Inman is from North Carolina, the Southern state with the highest desertion rate, 24%. He joins the Confederate army and enters the war. Inman lives through the siege of Petersburg but eventually sustains a bullet injury. This wound lands Inman in a hospital in Virginia. Inman is not expected to live but prevails and one day decides to leave the hospital, writing to his beloved Ada that he is returning home to Cold Mountain.
Inman’s journey from Virginia to North Carolina is long and wrought with trouble. Inman’s neck injury is a bother, especially in the heat of the summer. It slows him down. Inman also knows that he must be very sneaky, as not to be caught by the Home Guard. He travels mostly at night, creeping through fields. Inman prefers to journey alone but is forced to pick up tagalong by the name of Veasey. Veasey and Inman walk together; meeting a man named Junior who they think will be helpful. After dinner with Junior and his family, Junior turns in Veasey and Inman, handing the pair over to the Home Guard: “Inman moved as one would under water, effortfully and slow, out to the front porch. Up at the road he could see faint movement in the dark, shapes and masses only. He heard the expelled breath of a horse. A man’s cough. The tick of a hoof on stone. A light was struck and a lantern flared. Then another, and yet one more, until in the glaring yellowy light Inman could make out a band of Home Guard. Behind them , afoot, a tangle of men, shackled and downcast, shading off into the murk.” (Frazier, 222) The Home Guard executes their prisoners, including Inman, who is luckily only grazed by the bullet. He escapes the shallow of grave, leaving Veasey and the other dead, and continues on his journey. Ada, Inman’s beloved, is also affected by the Home Guard. Her and her companion, Ruby, hear of the villainy of Teague’s Home Guard. Teague’s family used to own most of Cold Mountain. He and his right hand man, Birch, commit crimes that are justified in the name of war. Ruby’s own father, Stobrod, is hiding from the Home Guard up in the mountains with a group of outliers who object to the war and therefore have not enlisted, deserted, or avoided the draft. Stobrod desires help and shelter but Ruby knows the danger of harboring an outlier and is resistant. Ada agrees to take in Stobrod and his friend Pangle in an attempt to protect them from the Home Guard. Inman continues on his odyssey, receiving help from the yellow man and the goat-woman. He arrives at Black Cove Farm, only to find it empty. Ada and Ruby left the farm to tend to Stobrod and Pangle. Pangle has been killed by Birch and Stobrod gravely injured. Inman finds Ada before he is found by the Home Guard. The pair decides that Inman should surrender himself to the Union and return after the war is over. Stobrod, Inman, Ada and Ruby start to journey back to Black Cove but are ambushed on the way by the Home Guard. Inman is killed but Stobrod survives. Inman completes his odyssey, ending in his death rather than a happily ever after. Inman deserted the army and was murdered by the Home Guard, a fate he shared with many other Confederate men. Cold Mountain is a fictional story with its roots in the story of a Confederate deserter. Inman isn’t opposed to the war initially but eventually doesn’t support it. He leaves the army to return home to Ada, who presumably needs help on the farm. He encounters the Home Guard multiple times on his journey but prevails until he reaches his goal. |