New work chronicles Civil War

An ancestor inspired Mark Barie’s historical fiction - February 7, 2019

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Mark Barie chronicles the Civil War in his new book “War Calls, Love Cries.”

TICONDEROGA | Mark Barie had written several important, tightly documented, history books when he decided to delve into historical fiction. The experience, he said, was liberating.

Barie’s new book, “War Calls, Love Cries,” spots his hero, Isaac Wells, at historically significant events throughout the Civil War, and expounds on scenes that played out more than 150 years ago. The benefit of fiction, Barie said, is that scholarly nitpicking becomes less of a factor.

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“Over the course of four books, I became a bit tired of footnotes,” he said.

Footnoted or not, Barie’s novel sticks close to the documented facts. The inspiration, he said, came from the discovery of a great-great grandfather of his who fought in the war.

“It was my chance to marry my family to Lincoln,” he said. Barie said he had been a Lincoln fan prior to his novel, and his further research cemented his convictions.

He said he began studying Lincoln when he was young, and started collecting books about his favorite pol. His interest in the time period, and with Lincoln, made the book easier to write, and produced nuggets he could incorporate into his work.

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That’s typical of historical fiction, he said, and a reason why many such novels take a long time to write. But owing to his knowledge of the era, the book came together in about a year. Still, there were hiccups.

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Barie said he accidentally referred to a rubber sheet as “plastic,” which people with a bent toward constructive criticism helpfully pointed out hadn’t been invented yet. “When you write a book like this you are constantly looking for mistakes; it’s a never-ending process,” he said. But the scenes in his book play out with authenticity as, for example, a man dying on the battlefield asks for a beer — and then says nothing more.

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To promote his book, Barie lectures on little known Civil War-era facts — among them that men were more likely to die of disease than bullets, and when John Wilkes Booth came to Washington to shoot the president, he slept in the same boarding house where Lincoln was taken and where he died.

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Barie, a well-known figure in North Country political and economic development circles, said health problems forced him into retirement, but that he soon discovered that “man does not live by golf alone.”

Barie’s writing credits include, “A Miracle Comes to Vermont,” the biography of a Catholic priest in Alburgh, Vermont; “Crossing the Line,” a collaborative effort with his wife Christine Racine, which details the history of the border at Rouses Point and Champlain; “The President of Plattsburgh: The Story of Smith Weed,” the first-ever biography of Smith Weed, a prominent 19th-century lawyer, business tycoon, politician and philanthropist from Plattsburgh, New York; and “The Boat People of Champlain,” another collaborative effort with his wife and the heretofore untold story of the boat-building industry that existed in the village of Champlain long ago.He has two more historical fictions in the works, based on the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.

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“Hopefully by the time I get to my third book I’ll be a good writer,” he joked.