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In The Ghost Cadet, Benjy meets the ghost of Cadet William Hugh McDowell, a real boy who fought and died in the Battle of New Market in Virginia during the War Between the States. This was a real battle, in which the Corps of Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute bolstered the small Confederate Army as it faced a much larger Union force. The courage of the Cadets inspired the veterans, and the Confederate Army won the day.
In this story, Cadet McDowell must haunt the battlefield until someone will help him find his family pocket watch, which he hid when he was about to die, to keep it safe from the Yankees. Benjy tries to help his friend, even sneaking into the battlefield at night, but the two boys cannot find the watch, because the battlefield has changed so much over time.
But then Benjy discovers that the ghosts of the entire Corps of Cadets will return to New Market the night before the anniversary of the battle, to relive their moment of glory. Is the friendship between Benjy and the ghost strong enough that Benjy can find the courage to go to the battlefield that night, and watch this ghostly reenactment in the hopes that he can see where the watch is hidden?Sometimes history is even stranger than a writer's imagination. When I began writing The Ghost Cadet, I wondered why a boy who died in the Battle of New Market might be a ghost. I decided that it would be because he had lost something at the battlefield - something so precious that he couldn't rest until it was found. What could be so precious? I asked my husband, who comes from an old Virginia family, and he immediately suggested a family watch. I liked the idea, and that became my fictional ghost's motivation.
I chose Cadet McDowell to become the ghost in my story because he died close to where I wanted to hide the watch, and because he was one of the youngest cadets who fell in the battle. The silver ghost on the book cover to the right is an actual reprint of a picture of the real Cadet McDowell. Then I got a chance to go to the Virginia Military Institute and read Cadet McDowell's family letters, and I got a startling surprise.
Cadet McDowell's father wrote to the Virginia Military Institute grieving for his son, and giving instructions for the return of his son's belongings, including his gold watch. The next letter said that the watch had not been returned. To my amazement, the real Cadet McDowell had actually owned a gold pocket watch, and that watch disappeared as of the Battle of New Market. It has never been found.
Sometimes when you write a book, something magical happens. Click here to read more about the real Cadet McDowell.
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