Personal Observations on the Conduct of the Modoc War(1874?) by William Henry Boyle

 Book Review

Personal Observations on the Conduct of the Modoc War (1874?)

by William Henry Boyle

Edited by Richard H. Dillon from the original manuscript in the Bancroft Library

300 Copies Printed by the Westernlore Press, Los Angeles, CA.

  It's true I don't write fiction, but I think about the writing of fiction plenty.  I think about what I would write IF I wrote fiction.  One conclusion is that any fiction I write would not proceed from the start point of a bildungsroman/roman a clef/family saga perspective.  I'm a cis white Jewish guy from an upper middle class family in the Bay Area and I can tell you that no one in the publishing world needs another book like that.   I would say the other path is a work of historical fiction with literary fiction ambitions.  That's an approach that allows the author to write characters of different race, class and economic background without touching on the authenticity concerns that dog any attempt at a bildungsroman/roman a clef type book, where the identity of the author is assumed to match the characteristics of the protagonist. 

   I think the idea with historical/literary fiction is to identify an episode- a set of historical facts that can be laid down.  Second would be to develop your characters, including a solid understanding of their background- these are like, things I would write down before I actually write any prose.  Finally I'd want to have the idea of the physical locations involved- like separately written down.   With those three pieces in hand, I would then attempt the first draft, revise, etc.   I'd want to write a very short story first but the idea is always towards the working of a novel of about 200-300 pages (250-300 words a page). 

  Anyway- I've always been interested in the Indian Wars from far Northern California because 1) they aren't well understood 2) they happened near the end of the Indian War period and near the geographic end of the North American continent and 3) the indians won some big battles.

   I think the Modoc War is the best bet for a couple reasons.  Captain Jack, leader of the rebellious Modoc band of 300 odd people, managed to kill about 100 US soldiers with something like 30 fighting men.  I think there is an interesting backstory- that the Modoc were already fighting to preserve their way of life from other indians before the arrival of the whites and an interesting afterstory, the surviving Modocs were relocated from the California/Oregon border to Oklahoma after their leaders were hung.   I think the idea would be to take a slightly anachronistic approach and include a journalist or scholar character who fully empathizes  with the Modocs while serving with the whites.  Also I think including a chapter showing inter-Native conflict before the arrival of the whites would be useful and interesting.   

  I'm interested in Native characters who are not passive victims of fate- the idea of a Captain Jack figure as the ultimate American anti-hero: murdering and mutilating the agents of the American government and any of its citizens.  Playing up, rather than running away from, the torture and mutilation of the dead, America, after all, loves torture porn and mutilation. 

   The one scene that left me thinking in this particular account is the murder of about thirty American soldiers who were waiting to set up a Howitzer gun with which to attack Captain Jack and his band.  Boyle describes finding thirty dead men in an area less than one hundred square feet- the victims of a surprise attack by Captain Jack.   They were essentially shot like fish in a barrel.   Haunting.