De Forest, John William (1826–1906), Connecticut‐born novelist, utilized his experiences as a Civil War captain to write the first realistic novel of that conflict,
Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty (1867), which gives a vivid picture of a soldier's feelings in battle, the sordid corruption and inefficiency during the war, and the subtleties of the feminine mind.
Kate Beaumont (1872) is a realistic study of South Carolina life and manners, which De Forest had observed as a district commander of the Freedmen's Bureau. Further examples of his vigorous realism and study of character are
Honest John Vane (1875) and
Playing the Mischief (1875), political novels set in the corrupt Washington of Grant's administration. Other, lesser novels are
Witching Times (serialized in
Putnam's Magazine (1856–57), not separately published), about the Salem witchcraft trials;
Seacliff or The Mystery of the Westervelts (1859), concerning a domestic tragedy in Connecticut;
Overland (1871), set in frontier New Mexico and California;
The Wetherel Affair (1873), a mystery story;
Justine's Lovers (1878);
Irene the Missionary (1879), set in Syria, where he had traveled in the 1850s;
The Bloody Chasm (1881), dealing with the post‐Civil War era; and
A Lover's Revolt (1898), a romance of the Revolution. De Forest also wrote a scholarly
History of the Indians of Connecticut … (1851),
Oriental Acquaintance: or, Letters from Syria (1856),
European Acquaintance: Being Sketches of People … (1858), and
Poems (1902).
A Volunteer's Adventures (1946) and
A Union Officer in the Reconstruction (1948) collect letters and articles written during and after the Civil War.
