Scarlett said, "Mercy, Mr. Butler. Isn't life surprising?”
WHICH WASN'T NEARLY THE END
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This unusual collaboration was driven by two very different storytellers' imaginations and the history of that thrilling and terrible period that made the United States what it is today. Like Margaret Mitchell, I have taken some liberties with history. Civil War historians will notice that I've attributed some of Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan's exploits to Colonel Andrew Ravanel. General Morgan was not Andrew Ravanel and did not survive the war. Likewise, Cuban historians will set the date of General Narciso Lopez's assault several years earlier than I have here. Like the Bay of Pigs and the Iraq invasion, Lopez's invasion used good motives to conceal venial ones and, like them, failed. Lopez was garotted in Havana and his American freebooters — excepting one man — shot. That exception asked the Spanish commander to post a letter to the still powerful Senator Daniel Webster, which he signed "Your affectionate nephew." His successful ruse sounded like Rhett Butler to me.
I am grateful to those who helped Rhett Butler's People:
In Georgia:
Mr. Paul Anderson Mr. Hal Clarke The Special Collections at Emory and Henry University The Atlanta History Center Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation State Historic Site
In New Orleans:
Ms. Penny Tose Mr. Henri Schindler Mr. Arthur Carpenter, Loyola University Special Collections and Archives Louisiana State Museum and Historical Center Howard Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane University Historic New Orleans Collection, Williams Research Center
In Charleston:
Mr. Nick Butler Dana and Peggy McBean Dr. J. Tracy Power Captain Randy Smith Mr. Peter Wilkerson Dr. Stephen Wise The Charleston Museum Charleston Library Society South Carolina Historical Society Charleston Preservation Foundation and the staffs of the Nathaniel Russell, Aiken-Rhett, and Edmondston-Alston houses Elsewhere: Mr. Thomas Cartwright and The Carter House Museum, Franklin, Tennessee The International Museum of the Horse at the Kentucky Horse Park The Alderman Library at the University of Virginia The Leybum Library at Washington and Lee University Ms. Jennifer Enderlin at St. Martin's Press
And especially my beloved Anne, whose courage never flagged.