This Leavened Land
A Novel of the Civil War in East Tennessee
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Published by: Munn Avenue Press
Release Date: July 16, 2025
Pages: 172
ISBN13: 978-1960299871
Synopsis
Set among the villages, woods, farms, and hollers of eastern Tennessee during the American Civil War, we enter the heart and mind of a plainspoken young farm boy as he experiences love, loss, and betrayal as the Civil War tragically turns long-time friends and neighbors into bitter enemies. Despite his fears, he is drawn into the fighting and joins a group of Union guerrillas in their bitter life-and-death battles against murderous Confederate bushwhackers. Spurred on by incredible loss and heartbreak, he hunts down the one man who has taken nearly everything away from him.
In the spring of 1861, seventeen-year-old James Meecham is a simple farm boy born with a somewhat shortened left leg, a love of horses, and a heart full of questions about justice, loyalty, and manhood. Raised on a modest Tennessee farm, James sees the storm of war coming long before the cannons fire. But as family, neighbors, and childhood friends take sides, James must navigate a world torn apart—not just by North and South, but by the moral cost of slavery and the quiet heroism of those who dare to challenge it.
Through his eyes, we meet men like Absalom Johnson, a free Black livery owner with unshakable integrity, Jedidiah Johnson, a courageous and strong-willed free Black cooper, and a shackled Black field hand named Lucas, whose whispered plan for freedom tests the boundaries of conscience. At the center of it all is Charlotte, the judge’s daughter, whose poetry and pride stir something deeper in James than he’s ever felt before.
Rich in voice and vivid with detail, this coming-of-age tale captures the tensions of a nation on the brink—and the resilience of one boy learning what it means to face one’s fears and losses with courage and faith.
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"There are many weighty, epic books about the Civil War; though Mauser's is small by comparison, it carries just as much punch. It's quick-paced and intense, a story about revenge, loyalty, and a boy's growing into a man. Through James Meecham's eyes, we see not only the moral struggle of opposing slavery while living in the Southern state of Tennessee but also the moral struggle of being unwilling to fight to end it. This book is a fresh look at the Civil War, and I highly recommend it!"
—Jo Niederhoff, San Francisco Book Review
“In East Tennessee during the Civil War, some citizens supported secession and some opposed it, creating a regional civil war among neighbors, family, and friends. Thomas Mauser explores this movie-worthy dynamic in vivid detail and with heart and soul. Our young hero James Meecham guts his way through the war, loving, losing, suffering, surviving… Readers will find James and other characters endearing, and the story absorbing and poignant throughout.”
—David Aretha, Award-Winning Author & Editor
“This Leavened Land: A Novel of the Civil War in East Tennessee introduces seventeen-year-old farm boy James Meecham, who senses the winds of war are arriving to buffet his family’s farm before the soldiers set foot on their property. His first-person observations of their fifty-acre homestead and the people who become caught up in the war creates an especially gripping Civil War account that is as much about battles of the heart and mind as it is about military engagement. Many of the boy’s observations and assessments will resonate with modern readers interested in situations where social and political conflicts arise:
The crowd cheered. Men tossed their hats in the air and women waved their handkerchiefs.
“God bless the Confederacy!” someone cried out.
The crowd kept cheering as my brothers and I made our way to our wagon and went home. A fearsome storm is coming across this land, I thought.
Also notable is how James chooses to treat those around him as he grows up, navigates new situations and ideas, and confronts dangerous situations that arise from a journey and the clash of the Confederates and Yankees who are fellow Americans. Thomas Mauser employs realistic scenarios and local dialogue to cement the experiences of his characters, which brings the story to life:
“I’ve heard Kansas jayhawkers scalp every Confederate they kill,” the soldier named Tad said.
“You Tennessee fellers scalp dead rebels?” the tobacco-chewing soldier asked.
“Every rebel we’ve killed so far has been bald-headed,” Jedediah said.
From how the Union army occupies large swaths of private lands and changes the nature of the countryside to what it takes to remain “real decent” in a milieu of inhumanity and cruelty, Mauser explores a range of issues related to the Civil War and its impact not just on families and communities, but moral and ethical values.
Libraries interested in a Civil War novel packed with inspections that go beyond political confrontation to probe the choices made by ordinary people in a whirlwind of conflict will find This Leavened Land a powerful saga that brings history to life. Replete with reflections that will also give rise to strong book club discussions and history reading group insights, This Leavened Land creates a winning chronicle of discovery that is worthy of wide recommendation—even to those not normally interested in Civil War stories or historical novels.
It’s that powerful.”
—Diane Donovan, Sr. Editor, Midwest Book Review
Excerpt
“Never buy a mule for plowin’ that ain’t already broken to the plow….”
My father reminded me—a seventeen-year-old youth—of his homespun wisdom concerning mules as we took our horse and wagon from our farm to the village of Hunleyville in early April 1861 to buy a plowing mule. My father, William Meecham, a plainspoken and God-fearing man, read the Bible every day and believed in the Old Testament proverb that a father who loved his sons chastised them often. Every time my two brothers, John and Charles, or I didn’t behave the way our father wanted or didn’t do our farm chores to his liking, he’d chastise us with his hickory switch.
Our fifty-acre farmstead lay some ten miles from Hunleyville. The village itself stood some miles north of Knoxville, Tennessee. It was in our simple farmhouse that my devout and strong-willed mother, Ellen Meecham, brought me into this world one cold winter afternoon—the eighth of December 1843 to be exact. I was given the Christian name James after my maternal Scots-Irish grandfather who settled in this part of Tennessee in the late 1700s. It was some years after my birth that my father and mother told me that they saw right quick after I was born that my left leg was a bit shorter than my right leg. I was thin and sickly as a child and walked with a limp, but farm work hardened me as I grew. Ninety years on, my left leg is still a bit shorter than my right leg and I still walk with a limp.
The rough-hewn country roads that my father and I traveled along in early April 1861 turned muddy when the rains came and were near impassable when the winter snows arrived. Hickory woodsmoke rose from the stone chimneys of scattered farmhouses as we drove past them. Farm fields hedged by worm fences lay ready for spring plowing and planting. We came to the near side of Hunleyville where a one-room schoolhouse and a square-shaped religious meetinghouse stood. Wooden-clapboard establishments stood along both sides of the rough country road that ran through the village—a cooperage, a clothing store, a general store, a gunsmith’s shop, a doctor’s office, a post office, and a boarding house. We passed a two-story courthouse with its barred cellar windows and high wooden gallows out back and soon came to the far side of the village where a grist mill, a blacksmith’s shop, and a livery stable stood. Across from the grist mill stood a two-story, wooden-clapboard, dry goods store that was owned by my uncle, George Paynter. We halted in front of the store and climbed down from the wagon and walked into the store.
My cousins, David and Henry, were stocking the shelves, while my uncle was talking to one of our neighbors, a gray-haired and thickly mustached farmer by the name of Obadiah Adkins. After we said our hellos, Father and I listened as Obadiah told us that some of the local farmers were hankering to fight Yankees and others wanted to fight Confederates.
“It’s all fools’ talk,” my father said.
“Why can’t those politicians in Washington settle things?” my uncle asked.
“It’s ‘cause they can’t agree on anythin’,” Obadiah said. “That’s why most folks reckon a war’s comin’.”
I knew not a lick about all the politicking that was going on in Washington at that time. I ain’t foolish enough to fight if a war starts, I thought. Truth be told, I was a coward when it came to fighting in a war, and I knew that I’d skedaddle just as quickly as my legs could carry me once all the shooting started, and I told everyone so.
“Ain’t nowhere a stays-at-home coward can hide once the fightin’ starts, James,” Obadiah said.