Historical

Title: A Passel of Hate
Author: Joe Epley
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Edward Cox

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1461075939

Gripping, visceral, and full of intensity, A Passel of Hate is as historically fascinating as it is emotionally satisfying; capturing the heartache and triumphs of a war that brutally pits brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor in the western Carolina frontier in 1780. “The first link in a chain of evils…the loss of America” is how Sir Henry Clinton, Britain’s commander-in-chief in the Colonies, describes the decisive American victory at the battle of Kings Mountain. This fact-based novel brings the events leading to that battle into sharp focus through the highly personal experiences of families and individuals who shaped its outcome. Through the eyes of Jacob Godley, A Passel of Hate brings to life the hardships and challenges of frontier living where there is a constant threat from Indians, roving raiders and British invaders. Without government orders or formal training, mountain and piedmont patriots join together with their own weapons and horses to expel a British led Loyalist army that plunders the western Carolina countryside, delivering harsh retribution to those supporting rebellion. Jacob and his 15-year-old brother enter the savage fighting with the Liberty Men, but with a dread of having to face their three Loyalist brothers. The overwhelming victory at Kings Mountain is bittersweet for Jacob who suffers a crushing personal tragedy on the battlefield. In addition, his nemesis, the notorious Tory raider Rance Miller escapes, and Jacob, consumed by hatred, tracks the terrorist through the Carolina backcountry to seek the revenge he so desperately needs. A battle Thomas Jefferson called “the turn of the tide of success,” Kings Mountain has a devastating impact on the British Army’s goal of quashing the rebellion in the south. Brutal in its depiction of the harrowing nature of war and the price paid by our revolutionary ancestors, A Passel of Hate is a powder keg of highly charged personal feelings and military significance.

Title: Rich Man's War Poor Man's Fight
Author: Daniel Thompson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Joyce Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B005OAWJYQ

Rich Man's War - Poor Man's Fight, is the story of two Scot - Irish families who left Ireland for the promise of a better life in America. While accurately set in time and place, this is not a battle by battle account of Civil War history. It is the story of a determined people who were pressed into a war by a country who spurned their kind and used them as pawns so their wealthy sons could be kept out of harm's way. One family, a young man who hoped to use his family trade as a sword smith entered through the port of New York in 1862. New York was in the midst of the conscription riots as Abraham Lincoln's cabinet desperately fought to fill the ranks of an Army to hold the Union together. A second family left Dublin for New Orleans. They arrived as organizers tried to convince young Irish men that the South's fight for independence from the federal government is a struggle that the Irish should understand. Fate brings the young men together on opposing sides of a Virginia battlefield where they collapse in exhaustion and come to realize the irony of their meeting and the cruel circumstances that brought them together as enemies.

Title: Rich Man's War - Poor Man's Fight
Author: Daniel Thompson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Joyce Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B005OAWJYQ

Rich Man's War - Poor Man's Fight, is the story of two Scot - Irish families who left Ireland for the promise of a better life in America. While accurately set in time and place, this is not a battle by battle account of Civil War history. It is the story of a determined people who were pressed into a war by a country who spurned their kind and used them as pawns so their wealthy sons could be kept out of harm's way. One family, a young man who hoped to use his family trade as a sword smith entered through the port of New York in 1862. New York was in the midst of the conscription riots as Abraham Lincoln's cabinet desperately fought to fill the ranks of an Army to hold the Union together. A second family left Dublin for New Orleans. They arrived as organizers tried to convince young Irish men that the South's fight for independence from the federal government is a struggle that the Irish should understand. Fate brings the young men together on opposing sides of a Virginia battlefield where they collapse in exhaustion and come to realize the irony of their meeting and the cruel circumstances that brought them together as enemies.

Title: Northern Colors
Author: Michael Eckers
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviwer: John Faulkner

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B002KE62B0

Northern Colors is a historical fiction story of young Isaiah Weldon who enlists in the Second Minnesota Infantry during the American Civil War. His adventures, and those of his family at home, are described accurately without graphic violence or profane language. Through narrative, letters and journals the reader gains general knowledge of the war and the events taking place in Minnesota from 1862 through 1865. Isaiah becomes a color bearer for his regiment and is wounded during the advance on Atlanta. Recovering from his wound with the help of a young woman he has met and brought home, he returns in time to accompany General Sherman on the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign. At the same time, his family continues to face life in the North Star State without him. This book is a great read for late elementary youth through adult. Northern Colors is the cornerstone book in a series that will follow the Weldon family from the American Revolution through all the major wars and conflicts up to the present day.