C is for Columbia, Missouri

It's the third day of the April A to Z challenge. Today's letter is C and so I'm picking Columbia, Missouri, one of my many hometowns. I went to university here. When I was a university student I made the smart move of making friends with lots of so-called "townies". Unlike Tucson, another of my hometowns, my circle of friends hasn't scattered to the four winds. I even set my Civil War novel A Fine Likeness in and around Columbia with a bunch of inside jokes only my Missouri friends will catch.

Like most people who have lived there, I have mixed feelings about Columbia. It's one of Missouri's liberal flight towns and has a great community of artists and thinkers, yet on the other hand it has some serious racial issues most people pretend don't exist. One of my friends, Tyree Byndom, is tackling these issues and it's hard going. Like his Facebook page. He'll challenge your thinking and won't mind if you challenge him right back.

So what was Columbia like during the Civil War? It was a Unionist oasis in a secessionist countryside and that was not a very comfortable thing to be! A Union blockhouse was placed at the intersection of 8th St. and Broadway and a local militia constantly guarded the town. In my novel I add a fictitious militia company led by the equally fictitious Captain Richard Addison so I can have them go of on adventures that aren't found in the history books. Addison makes damn sure there's no written record of some of the things he sees and does!

The real Columbia didn't see much action during the Civil War, except for a raid by some Confederate bushwhackers to bust a comrade out of jail. There are also plenty of local ghosts stories involving Civil War soldiers and a few period homes like this cabin.


Photos courtesy Horncolumbia via Wikimedia Commons.