The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Rebecca’s Soliloquy: A True Story by Roberta Nee Nee Adams

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

Rebecca's Soliloquy: A True Story by Roberta Nee Nee Adams https://www.amazon.com/Rebeccas-Soliloquy-Roberta-Nee-Adams/dp/1489702288 Rebecca Moffatt finds a wounded Union officer on her family?s farm and nurses him back to health?not too remarkable, except that her husband is a Confederate officer away at war! Little does she know that her actions will set into motion a series of events that will see her making a journey of over 250 miles from Obion County, Tennessee, to St. Louis, Missouri. She travels mostly on foot with an older couple who were former slaves on the farm, an old horse, and a two-wheeled dogcart. Her mission is to get her wounded husband out of prison camp there and bring him home. But at what cost? Though there are many volumes of well-documented facts about the Civil War, there are untold thousands of stories of individual struggles and courage of that time. Most are lost to history, but this one has survived, the story being told orally from generation to generation. This true story of grim determination, courage, and the strength of the bonds of love is so compelling that it has survived to be told 150 years later.

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an endorsement or review of any kind. Today's featured author comes to us from bookstolifemarketing.co.uk with expert publishing to strategic marketing. They help authors reach their audience and maximize their book success. Uh, today we had an amazing young lady on the show. We're talking about her book, Rebecca's Silicue, a true story out August 12th, 2014 by Roberta, me, Adams. We're going to get into it with her and find out her story and some of the

journeys that she's been on, et cetera, et cetera. Uh, welcome to the show, Rebecca or Roberta. All right. Welcome to the show. How are you? I'm doing very well. How are you, Chris? I am doing excellent. I am doing excellent. Give us your dot coms, any place on the interwebs you want to be found. I don't have a website yet. I do have an email, but that's about it right now. I'm getting that

in the works though. And so watch for that, folks. Send us a link to that one and we'll add it to the show whenever you get that up. So your book, Rebecca's Siliqui, a true story, tell us about this book. Rebecca S. Smoot The story is a family story that was told to me by my late mother-in-law and it's about her great grandparents. And when she told me this story, it absolutely captivated me and I knew I would write it and eventually I did.

Yeah. So, what is the story about? Well, the story is about two brothers. They were both Moffats. They lived in Albion County outside of Troy, Tennessee Moffat being their last name Moffat being their last name. Yes, and she our maiden name was Moffat It was anyway these two brothers in the Civil War. They both signed up for the

Before the war one was a merchant and one was a farmer. Augustus was the farmer. Both were relatively wealthy before the civil war, but they joined up with the Confederacy and went to fight. The merchant brother gets his arm shot off and gets sent back home. And the farmer, Augustus gets wounded and taken captive and taken to a prison camp in St. Louis, which is 250 miles north on the Mississippi. And while he is gone away at war, his wife, Rebecca, finds on their farm a wounded Yankee

officer. She nurses him back to health and he writes her passes to go get her husband out of prison camp and bring him home. So she leaves the farm with an older couple who had been former slaves on the farm, but by the 1860 census Augustus didn't have any slaves so he freed them all well before the war but they leave the farm with an old two-wheeled dog cart and an old horse and they walk to St. Louis and get him out of prison camp and bring him home. And by foot, I mean, they didn't drive, you know, like a catch the bus. Nope. Nope. No bus lines. No bus lines.

Let's see. Do they have cars in the car? Yeah, they didn't have cars in the civil war. So the, uh, you know, I was, I was there at the civil war, but, uh, that's why the memory is fading. Anyway, so this is, uh, was this part of your family lineage the moth that's lineage Yes, by marriage. Okay, my late mother-in-law It was her direct great-grandparents

Mm-hmm. And Yes, when she told me the story like I said now the story had been handed down orally through the generations and basically what I told you is all I had to work with. So I had to kind of connect the dots so to speak in writing the story and I tell the story in letters that she writes to her husband while he's gone showing how she overcame her fear of the Yankees and had the courage to make a trip like that. Pete Slauson Yeah. 250 miles. Debra Larson Yeah. Yeah. And back.

Pete Slauson Oh, that's right. And back. So, 500 round trip. Debra Larson Yeah. Pete Slauson You know, she probably should have just booked a plane on Southwest. Yeah, Southwest I believe would be almost a direct flight from Memphis. Yeah, there you go. By the way, our sponsor today is, no, I'm just kidding. We don't have we've Spirit Airlines. We were going to play the tape broke that we were going to play now. No, that's just not nice playing with making fun of airline places.

But no, that's quite the thing. Now, was it in the story, her husband was a Confederate? Yes. And was it, was it, was it kind of illegal or could she get in trouble for saving a union officer? Yes, she very well. Now, the union had control of Obion County early in the war, but as far as her family and, you know, towns folks and all, you know, they would have considered her treasonous.

But it helped get her husband free. Julie Yes, it did. And it was, the way I wrote the story, the secret didn't get out until it was time for her to go and get her husband when she got the passes. Pete Slauson Oh, there you go. Is this total history or is this historical fiction as you sometimes classify these? Debra Actually, it's historical fiction. Like I said, I had to come up in my own head how all these events might have taken place. So, actually, there were things that happened in the book that I didn't even know were going to happen when I started the book. Pete Slauson Wow. Now, there's something in here about she's traveling foot with an older couple of former slaves on the farm, an old horse,

and a two-wheeled dog cart. Dr. Debra Hicks Yes. Pete Slauson That sounds like, is dark heart the horse, something the horse pulls or do you have to hand pull that? Dr. Debra Hicks The horse would pull it. Pete Slauson So, I think I hand pull that? Uh, the horse would pull it. Um, so I think I know what those look like. The old,

yeah, old two wheel cart with three sides. Yeah. Oh, and in the back. Yeah. Those things don't ride well either. The shocks on them are horrible. They're terrible. Yeah.

I think that was one of the recalled models from GM back then. So I'm not sure. But no, this is an extraordinary story. I mean, there really is. Dr. and the soldiers, but how many stories like that are out there that have been lost to history? Pete Yeah. And this got passed down family to family. Debra Yeah. Pete We've had some authors on the show and some of these, you know, different stories that get passed down and that's kind of how they kind of kept track of things because, you know,

writing in paper was expensive or, you know, most people didn't really know how to write. So it was kind of what they used to call a griot back in the day in Africa. They would have historians of the tribe and the historians would have to keep an oral history and everything in the brain, which I don't know how that worked out if you're a historian got eaten by a lion, but they had to make sure, hey, protect that dude because he knows everything about the history of our tribe and don't make sure, hey, protect that dude. Cause he knows everything about the history of our tribe. And don't make sure he doesn't have a zoom and he's not allowed near water or any place he can get an infection like something. So, uh, so this is pretty interesting.

And I imagine you, you dug through some of the history of this maybe. And, and, uh, what was that like maybe, uh, trying to, you know, maybe get some dates and times and data? Well one of the most interesting things I did I went into the Library of Congress and I found a map of the Mississippi from Memphis to St. Louis that was done in 1864. So I copied four by four squares, 82 of them, and I pieced them all together like a big puzzle and I taped it to a door while I was writing the book so I could judge, you know, it told what cities they might have gone through, what little towns and that kind of thing. So, I could kind of judge how far they might have traveled in a day's time and that's how

I figured out the timeline. Yeah, there you go. You know, I've been to St. Louis and a lot of their barbecue rib joints. I would probably walk on foot 250 miles to get some of those ribs. For their barbecue? I'll go out of my way for barbecue. I love a barbecue. Plus, you know, that authentic sort of stuff they have there. What did, did your family chip in on some of the stories? Uh, you know, did, did people have some variant versions or different details

that you're able to, that they helped with or how did that work out? No, because that was, uh, that was by marriage side of the family. And there wasn't, my mother-in-law, we all called her granny because she looked just like Granny Clankett. So anyway, she was the historian. Now I have pictures of both Rebecca and Augustus and a picture of the house they lived in.

And I've been to Troy, they're both buried at Troy City Cemetery. I've seen their graves. And just, you know, most of it was what I did on my own. And just the style of writing. I really enjoyed that style of writing. And I'll have to tell you this. You're familiar with Ron Maxwell, who was directed Gettysburg um not too familiar no okay well don't tell me about it he's uh he's a renowned expert on the civil war and he directed gettysburg gods and generals and copperheads anyway uh he read the book and told me on the phone he said you know rebert i gotta tell you i was well into the book and told me on the phone

He said, you know Robert I gotta tell you I was well into the book before I realized that those letters were not authentic Oh, so he believed it he was like this this sounds factual. Yeah, he thought they were original letters I don't know what gave me away, but That's some historical, what do they call it? Historical fiction there. Done well. I mean, maybe you, how did you, how were you, you know, they kind of had some, sometimes some different English and prose back then. How did you know how to tune into that? Dr. after I'd already written the book, I ran across a diary that a girl from Nashville who was 16 wrote during the Civil War and the phrasing, I mean, it gave me goosebumps. It was so close to what I did. So I was like, wow, I mean, maybe Rebecca was kind of over my shoulder while I was writing it. Yeah, you never know. You never know.

Uh, you know, and I mean, it was, those were some difficult times. I mean, at 250 miles, I wonder how long it would take the walk down on foot. Did you Google it or anything? I think directions can tell you. No, I didn't. And actually I should know off the top of my head how long I had it in the book. I think you should have done the walk for research. I don't do that.

Don't do that. That's not, that's not, you're going to bring, you're going to need some good walking shoes for that. Yeah. And I didn't have the motivation she had getting her husband out of prison camp. So yeah, I would've left him most, I think most crazy about that guy. They, maybe they weren't married long. They were just newlyweds or something.

Every, every wife I know, uh, she would leave them. She'd be like free, free at last. No, I'm just kidding. The, uh, so, uh, I'm going to put this in the map thing. Cause I'm, I'm just curious how long a two 50 walk takes one way. And so it's directions from what city? From Troy, Tennessee. Troy, Tennessee.

To St. Louis. To St. Louis, Missouri. They finished it for me great. That's a 241 miles. And let's see, how do you, they're doing drive time with me. I don't want drive time. I want to walk it. They're like, they're, they're, they're acting like who'd be

crazy enough to walk this thing. That's what they're doing. It's, it tells me, tells me it's 22 hours in bus time if she took the bus, but you know, she, she would have had to have one of those gray card membership, gray hound memberships. Yeah. Yeah. If she took the bus, but you know, she, she would have had him on this gray card membership, gray on memberships. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh, why can't I get this, uh, and it's from the Phillips 66 at West real foot Avenue. Oh, I actually did put buses. Um, where did that come from? I put distance in, switched the buses on me. This is from Troy to Missouri, travel math, but give me walking, driving distance, flying, walking. Like they're just like, no one walks that. My brother and his wife just did a hundred mile walk and they did in days. 10 days?

Yes. Oh my gosh. So here we go. What? Oh, wow. Okay. I finally got walking. Oh, hundred and two hours. 102 hours. One way. Okay. So if you walk eight hours a day, that'd be about 13 days. Yeah, the one way. Yeah, it took them a little longer because they get bogged down with weather. Oh yeah, sure. Mississippi. And then there was a very, very, a big disaster happened and that slowed them down.

So well. That'll do. But they made it in good time yeah wow that's she's she really was like them what are some other aspects of the story that you think find interesting readers should know about one thing is i think every author probably does this but they put little secrets in their book. Yeah. Okay. Like Easter eggs sort of thing? In gaming, they call them Easter eggs. They put little secrets that people can find.

Yes, yes. Some people will know these if they read the book, but most people wouldn't. But I had an uncle who was, his name was Steve, and I was born in Gardner, Massachusetts. So the Yankee that she nurses to help, his name is Steven Gardner. Pete Liesvaal Is that even a name that was used back then? Or is it? Debra Larson I don't know.

He was from the north, maybe. Pete Liesvaal I think they were, I thought they were all named Mabel and Dearest Margaret or I don't know, I'm just being funny. But yeah, and how long did it take you to write this story? Debra Six months. And that's another little story. I had told people the story for years. And I kept saying, I'm gonna write that someday. I'm gonna write that someday. And I told a friend of mine one time this story and I said is that amazing and he says oh yeah really and I said I'm gonna write that someday and he says No, no, no, no, that story is in you. You need to write it just started. And then I told a colleague at work about it and he says, I'd give you to the end of the year to do it, which was nine months and it took me six.

One gave me, you know, one got me started and the other put a deadline to it, so that made it real. Pete Slauson I love it. You know, sometimes the best work is done under necessity. Dr. Annette Gordon Yeah. Pete Slauson Sometimes you gotta have a gun to your head. Let's see. Now, did you start and end the book in the, why did you start and end the book in the present day is one of the questions I've got set up here.

Dr. Annette Gordon I end the book in the present day is one of the questions I've got set up here. I started the book in the present day in the original Moffat house. Okay. And the antebellum home. And I started it in the present day because we're connected to the past. It's not something that's dead and gone. It's past, true, but the connections are there. And so I started it and ended it in the present day. And you've got secrets in the book. What did you enjoy most about writing the book? Uh, using that language, using words that people don't use anymore. Like gumption or something. I don't know.

I can't think of any silver words. How did you, how did you know what those words were? Are they, is it in the commonplace in the South or are they kind of in the history books there? No, it's a, it's the time period. It's a time period. It's a time period. And I've read a lot of older books. I love the language.

I love the language. Yeah. Kind of like the Antique Age. Yes, yeah. And people had a way of speaking them, you know, using things. They were educated, you know using things if they were educated, you know That's out something else that Ron Maxwell told me he said if he were directing the movie that he would not change a thing That's my hope eventually I'll make it

Here's that will be pretty cool. I mean, you got enough there for two hours. You got, you got 102 hour walk. You know, you got, I mean, shit, you can just cut out pieces and you got like your sequels and stuff, you know, first 25 miles of the first movie and then the next 25, you just call it the next 25. And there's a story within the story about the bonnet box. And this was a cousin to the two Moffat brothers, moved down from Haverhill, Massachusetts. He went to Troy, but then he went on to Nashville.

He had been a shoemaker. But when he got to Nashville, he met and married a southern girl from a prominent family in Nashville. And when war broke out, he swore he would not bear arms against either side. But he joined the Union and he was a guard at the federal prison in Nashville where they kept their prisoners of war. And they had a shoe shop at the prison. They slaughtered the cattle, they tanned the hide for leather, and they made shoes for the Union Army. And this gentleman befriended a southern prisoner of war, and the prisoner made a bonnet box for the guard and his wife for an anniversary gift and I took it to the museum, Tennessee State Museum. They

had a pair of shoes there that were made at the prison and they got those out and they authenticated the leather on the box and the tanks were shoe tacks and it's decorated in carved cow bone and I've got that bonnet box now that was passed down through the family and it was my late mother-in-law that had it that passed it on that I got it. Well that's fun. There's my next book. I think so. That or you do the walk yourself and you you know turn it into a documentary. Oh god it just wouldn't be the same. Yeah yeah here's where they here's where they peed on the side of the road because they didn't have restrooms or seven 11s. Here's where the horse got stolen.

Here's where the horse peed on the side of the road. So here's some slang words they used in the Civil War. The chief cook or bottle and bottle washer was a person capable of doing many things. That's what they call me. They'd be like, you a podcaster? I'd be like, no, I'm a, yeah, these are slang words used in the civil war. Oh, wow. That's cool. Yeah. So a chief cook and bottle washer was a person capable of doing many things. Sheet iron crackers.

That doesn't sound tasty. Or hard tack biscuits. That sounds even less. Sheet iron crackers, that doesn't sound tasty, were hard tack biscuits. Uh, that sounds even less. I don't know. I don't know. You've got a lot of salt for that. A pepper box was a handgun pistol.

Oh, okay. Yeah. This is kind of interesting. An Arkansas toothpick was a very long, large knife. Use that in your teeth with the with the great care Graybacks were names for southern soldiers or lice Wow, that's kind of Wow, that's a backhanded Thing if I ever go to the south, you know, and so he pissed me off. I might call him a grayback

That's probably not a good idea Green backs or money bread basket was your stomach? I think I fill mine with plenty of bread. So sarnine box was a cat box part of the soldiers ammunition Civil War slang folks on the Chris was show So Civil War times things pass down anymore. We need to know before we go out. That's, that's mostly it. I think it's, um, a wonderful story and, um, everyone should read it. It's not a hard read.

It's, uh, it really is really would be like a weekend read. Pete Slauson Yeah. Well, lots of fun and history and all that good stuff. And I think you mentioned in your retirement, you're doing some newspaper work, you want some awards. Do you want to give a plug out for those? Dr. DeRionne Pollard Oh, well, I just recently was awarded by the Tennessee Press Association.

First place in state for one of my business articles. It's been a wonderful day having you on the show. Give us your, I think an email or something you had or anything you want where people can find you on the interwebs? My email is first initial R, last name is R. I'm a student at the University of Michigan. I'm a professor at the University of Michigan. I'm a professor at the University of Michigan. I'm a professor at the University of Michigan. I'm a professor at the interwebs.

My email is first initial R last name Adams dot Trinity clinical research at gmail.com. I owned a company, I owned Trinity clinical research and we did clinical research for pharmaceutical companies. company. I own Trinity Clinical Research and we did clinical research for pharmaceutical companies. And just retired from that recently. Pete Well, congratulations on the book. We'll look forward to the next book out or the next, the movie version of the book. And you know, I mean, they're always doing those world war or not world war, they're always doing those enactments of the civil war. You know, I always see like those shows where people are, they're all dressed up and they, and they're hopefully they're pretending

to shoot each other this time. And they're really serious about giving their forms right. They are. Yes. It's quite wild, but you know, yeah. Did they ever decide that they ever see what happens if the other side wins that didn't win the first time? Maybe just to kind of see what happens. I don't know. You know, one thing I was reading about the civil war is the amputation was how they fix most problems. And it was like a story of a guy who, who he got his guts blown out and he thought,

well, oh my God, they're going to cut me, you know, the bottom half of me off. And I kind of liked that part. And, uh, so he went and hid hoping he could just die because he didn't want to get cut in half and then I guess they eventually found him and saved him and they didn't cut him in half, but, uh, I don't know how the rest supposed to have worked worked out. I suppose he put some duct tape on it and sent him on his way or something. You know, you just put a little gunpowder on there and fire it up and that cleans out all the wounds. That's right, cauterize it.

Cauterize it. Yeah, for sure. I got to poop now. Yeah. One of the things that Rebecca, one of the things that she was so desperate to get to her husband was that she had heard soldiers say that their chances were better on the battlefield than in a prison camp. So, you know, the conditions were so horrid.

All right. Well, thank you very much for coming to the showner. We really appreciate it. Okay. Well, thank you for having me Chris I appreciate that. Thank you In order per book where refined books are sold Rebecca's so Rebecca's Siliqui a true story out August 12th 2014 thanks for tuning in go to good reset com fortress Chris Voss linkedase.com, Fortress, Chris Vos, LinkedIn.com, Fortress, Chris Vos, Chris Vos 1 on the TikTok and the all those crazy places. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you next time. And that should have us out.