Jack Hinson’s One-Man War

Tom C. McKenney
Non-Fiction
Pages: 348
Suggested By: Joel Tomlin
Date Started: July 1, 2022
Date Finished: July 6, 2022
9h 28m 50s
Reason Book was Chosen:
Joel Tomlin, owner of Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, TN, often suggests this book to people wanting to read about the Civil War. Those same people come back into the store and say it is the best book they have ever read. That intrigued me enough to want to read it.

My Thoughts

Wow – what a story. Jack Hinson, living in the South during the Civil War, maintains neutrality until two of his sons are shot and beheaded by Union soldiers. He then goes John Wick, orders himself a custom-made .50 caliber rifle, and kills over 100 people, mostly Union officers. He is never caught. This story of the stuff of movies. It was interesting to look at one man, one family, and one area within the larger Civil War.

I was very intrigued by the manner of storytelling by author Tom C. McKenney. There are not a lot of details known about Jack Hinson from first-hand materials, so the author flirted with historical fiction in the telling of the story. There are many details in the story the author would just have no way of knowing (like what was going on in Jack Hinson’s mind). However, the story is told in such a way that it plops you right into that time period and location. And those are the things I think about when thinking about this story. It’s almost as if I was there.

There are so many ways to tell a story. Tim O’Brien identified two overarching ways in happening vs story truth. Happening truth could be the box score for a baseball game. Story truth could be the 12-year-old telling his friends about the game 3 days later. Happening truth may be more true in the dull stats of the game but story truth may be more real in the feel of the game.

The same thing is happening here. Tom McKenney could have just provided the happening truth of Jack Hinson’s neutrality, experience of horror, and subsequent revenge. Or he could have traveled to these areas, smelled, tasted, and touched what Jack Hinson did, and then created more of a narrative truth. McKenney chose the later and I think it’s a truer story because of it.

I found the material about southern culture, slave relations, and southern mentality quite interesting. It’s obvious that history is much more nuanced than common media and social media perceptions, but sometimes it’s hard to remember that in our current media environment. Jack Hinson was a slave-owner, who wished to remain neutral until the war crept onto his land and into his family, who freed his slaves in late 1862, and whose former slaves stayed with him and assisted in his revenge.

The author leaves the issue of justice up to the reader. Jack Hinson’s first two kills are of the officer and soldier directly involved in the killing of his sons. Those killings are understandable and perhaps justified in a somewhat lawless wartime situation. However, there was a third killing by sniper rifle. That third victim was not involved in the murder of Jack’s two sons. He was a Union Officer. That third killing marked a shift which eventually led to 100+ more killings. Were kills 3 through 100+ justified? What did they do to Jack’s soul? Jack was never caught. Never punished by the law. But he was punished in other ways. 7 of his 12 children died before him. He lived with the constant threat of retaliation by any number of family members of the 100+ victims.

There was one very memorable part of this book in which Jack Hinson made history. He had a favorite spot for his sniping activities overlooking a spot in a river with rough rapids. Any boat going against those rapids was effectively at a standstill. This gave Jack ample time to spot an officer on deck, take aim, and kill. His spot was such that it would have been near impossible for other members of the ship to disembark, scale the hill, and find him.

For most of the passing boats, Jack would locate one Union officer, take the kill shot, and stop at one kill. But with one boat, he took out a number of officers. The decision was made by the remaining members of the boat to lift the white flag of surrender. Little did the passengers know they were surrendering to one man. They thought there had to have been an army in those hills. Jack was so taken aback by the surrender flag that he stopped firing, but didn’t leave his spot. The passengers never knew it had just been one man seeking revenge. It was the first time in recorded history that one man had caused an entire set of soldiers to put up the white flag of surrender on a boat.

If you are interested in learning more about the Civil War and about the southern mentality during the war, this would be an exciting place to start. It’s hard to put yourself in Jack’s place, but author Tom McKenney does his best to put you there. You will recoil in horror at the thought of being presented with your children’s heads, identify with the righteous anger, and find yourself plotting revenge with Jack. But you’ll also question when enough is enough.

2 Comments. Leave new

  • Erik,

    Based on your discussion of this book, I added it to my Want to Read list, and when I was in Franklin, TN in Dec 2022, I bought it at Landmark Books. (I looked for you, but didn’t see you there that day.) This is the kind of historical narrative I enjoy, and Tom McKenney does not disappoint. My one key takeaway is the contrast of Northern vs Southern culture during that time (well, continuing at least for another century based on my life experience growing up in the South in the 70s and 80s), particularly when it came to black-white relationships. How all Southerners shared a common commitment to honor, tradition, and the Christian faith, and that that commitment bound them together across social classes and across race. How Jack Hinson cared for and protected his slaves, and they him. How “… in the North, the poor and the privileged sensed little or nothing in common.” [pgs 41-43 in the book]

    Have you read Ben Macintyre’s true spy non-fiction? The Spy and the Traitor is an edge-of-your-seat story about a high-ranking KGB official who spied for MI6 during the Cold War. Based on what I have heard of your tastes on the podcast, I think you would like it.

    I enjoy your podcast, and I have added books to my list that I never would have before hearing you discuss them. The next one I plan to read, based on your recommendation, is The Gulag Archipelago – the Solzhenitsyn-approved abridgment, of course. Although it will have to wait until my Catherine Project (Thank-you for that little tip also!) discussion group on Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend is over.

    [As I wrote this, I realized telling you I love the podcast here doesn’t help you, so I went on iTunes and gave it five stars.]

    In Him,
    Sue Brown
    Destin, FL

    Reply

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