Shiloh (The Civil War Battle Series, Book 2) - Softcover

Reasoner, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1581822480 ISBN 13: 9781581822489

Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing, 1999

Synopsis

As the Civil War sweeps across the country, a Confederate tells of intrigue and adventure at Shiloh, the bloodiest battle in Tennessee.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

As the Civil War sweeps across the country, it finds the most wayfaring member of the Brannon family working as a wharf rat at the Mississippi port of New Madrid, Missouri. Cory Brannon's first step toward the fighting, however, doesn't take place at a recruiting office. Instead he's rescued from a bar fight and makes the acquaintance of Capt. Zeke Farrell of the riverboat Missouri Zephyr. Later, when a small party of men attempts to burn the boat, Cory sounds a timely warning and finds himself the newest member of the crew.

The Zephyr makes the journey from New Madrid to New Orleans in late 1861 and ventures as far north as Cairo, Illinois. During the passage, Cory matures professionally and personally and finds that he has an interest both in learning the ways of the rivermen and in his captain's daughter, Lucille. His interests, however, subside when the vessel reaches Cairo in early 1862 and is greeted by Union gunboats. The war is now on the water, and there is little room left for river commerce.

Farrell, his ship, and his cargo pass Yankee scrutiny so that the riverboat is allowed to continue on to the Tennessee River. Here the boat is drawn into the battle lines developing around two strongpoints on the river: Confederate Forts Henry and Donelson. At the same time, a Union force under Ulysses S. Grant is preparing to initiate the fight to claim the prime water route for the North. Cory and his crewmates must choose sides and join in the fight to see which side will control the river.

Cory learns what it's like to fight for one's beliefs. He experiences combat. He sees men fall in front of him and beside him. He is taken prisoner and paroled. He loses Lucy and searches for word of her well-being in Nashville and beyond. When he learns that Grant is preparing to move farther south, he tries to alert the Southern leaders of the danger growing in Western Tennessee. In the end he takes up arms again, this time at the battle of Shiloh, where the largest armies in the West collide to determine the fate of the war in the western theater.

Shiloh is the second book in a projected series of eight, spanning the Civil War and describing its effect on one southern family. The Brannon brothers answer the call to arms at different times, and the family finds itself struggling with dilemmas it never had considered.

About the Author

JAMES REASONER is a veteran writer of historical fication. Author of the Walker Texas Ranger books, he has written several volumes in the Wagons West series, a frontier trilogy set in the years before the Lewis and Clark expedition, and seven volumes in The Civil War Battle Series. Reasoner lives near Azle, Texas.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1581822480
• ISBN 13: 9781581822489
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 362