South by Southwest: A Western Story

by Johnny D. Boggs

Zeb Hogan, a 15-year-old sharpshooter from Wisconsin, escapes from a prisoner-of-war camp in Florence, South Carolina, and reluctantly teams up with another runaway slave Ebenezer Chase. Zeb seeks revenge on a Union traitor. Ebenezer just wants to be reunited with his wife and daughter. As they make their way across the war-ravaged South in the waning days of the Civil War, they will have to trust each other if they want to survive.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction

230 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 2011

About the author

Johnny D. Boggs is a Spur- and Wrangler Award-winning author of the American West and frontier. Born in 1962, Boggs grew up on a farm near Timmonsville, South Carolina, around the old stamping grounds of Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion (chronicled in his frontier novel The Despoilers). He knew he wanted to be a writer at an early age. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife, Lisa Smith; son, Jack Smith Boggs; and basset hound, June.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of the Civil War that takes us into the West... Private Zeb Hogan finds a way to escape the Florence Stockade, prison camp for Union POWs in South Carolina. A young man who had served with the 16th Wisconsin Infantry, he escapes to carry out a mission on behalf of his comrades--and that is to find Sgt. Ben McVere and kill him. McVere was considered to be a traitor to his mates. He was a "Galvanized Rebel," one of the Federal soldiers who traded their Union blue for Confederate gray. In late 1864, Confederates recruited more than 800 Yankees at Florence. These men joined the enemy to escape the hunger and suffering of their prison hell. They must have also felt that their government had abandoned them, as US Grant refused to permit any prisoner exchanges, as part of the strategy of destroying the CSA through attrition. However, having reasons to switch sides did not lessen the anger and contempt that most of the soldiers-who stayed loyal-felt for their former comrades.
Hogan is determined to go to Vicksburg, Mississippi, rather than toward the much closer Union lines in South Carolina ( this is 1865 and Sherman is marching through the Carolinas), as he believes that McVere went to that city on the Mississippi River. The problem is that the Badger Stater does not know the countryside outside the camp. He falls in with a young runaway slave, Ebenezer, who is able to help him. Ebenezer has his own mission- to go to a city with the name of Dallas in Texas to find his wife and daughter who were sent there. The two men, despite their differences, find a way to work together as they make their way through a devastated South..
The story is well-written and I found it very engaging following the adventures of Zeb and Ebenezar-and to see if both men accomplish their missions in the end. I certainly appreciate how Boggs evokes a long-ago time and brings to life a people who were struggling to survive a bitter civil war. I'm very happy to have discovered this writer and plan to read more of his stories!

[Michael Wiggins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised to find myself enjoying this book at the end. I sure didn't care for it in the beginning.

I admit that I am unlikely to love a Yankee character, hailing from Wisconsin, who somehow found himself imprisoned in my beloved South Carolina. I rather enjoy reading Civil War era novels from the opposite perspective, being somewhat unreconstructed myself.

But the characters grew on me, and I found myself pulling for them by the time they survived their third or fourth brush with death. Author Johnny Boggs also introduced some pretty good plot twists to keep the story from being too pat.

[Roger Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an entertaining story that takes place during the last months of the American Civil War. Two individuals, Zeb Hogan, a white Union soldier recently escaped from a POW camp in Florence, South Carolina and Ebenezer Chase, an escaped slave team up together to avoid recapture and head South by Southwest to acheieve their individual goals. Hogan wishes to kill an traiterous Union officer while Chase hopes to reunite with his wife and child in Dallas. In order to survive, they must overcome their mutual suspicions and distrust and work together to avoid detection and acheive their goals. Antagonism eventually turns to trust and loyalty as they proceed west.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually like Johnny D. Boggs' stories a lot more than I liked this one. Not that this is a bad one, but it felt like he wrote it for a young adult audience. Both protagonists were teenage boys and there was a strong romantic element to the story and the violence seemed to be dialed back. As a young adult story, I think it was great and would have loved it when I was 15 or 16. Reading it as an adult, though, it was just okay.

[John Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard Friendship

Johnny D Boggs novels are always thoroughly researched, especially this one. The hard formed friendship between these two teenage boys, one a white Yankee escaped POW and the other a runaway black slave is strengthened as they travel over a thousand miles to fulfill an avowed pledge.

[Joe Farley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good character development and the friendship between Zeb and Ebenezer was heart warming. Good read and timely with all the racial discord of today.

[Joe Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable, attention keeping story that has is a little bit of a Huckleberry Finn element to it. It is a buddy road trip saga, but a serious take rather than a comedic adventure.

[Patricia O'Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zeb Hogan has a mission to carry out for the Union’s 16th Wisconsin: find and kill the traitor Sergeant Ben DeVere. It is a mission of honor, one Zeb will do anything to fulfill, even when that means crawling out of his shallow grave outside a Confederate prison camp. But while Zeb is coming back from the dead, he’s being watched by Ebenezer Chase, an escaped slave who is also on a mission: to find his wife and daughter who have been sold and transferred to a plantation in Texas. Zeb and Ebenezer join forces, helping each other survive, sometimes arguing, and all the time developing a deep respect for the other’s experiences and skills.

South by Southwest is an engaging story with a terrific opening sequence followed by many more like it. Zeb and Ebenezer are unlikely companions who learn on their journey from South Carolina to Texas a lot about themselves, each other, and life in a South in ruins towards the end of the Civil War. This is strong middle-grade fiction with some Christian themes, especially at the end of the novel.

[Jessica Timmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Johnny D. Boggs books keep getting better. This novel shows the determination of two young men of completely different backgrounds and just how quickly teenagers needed to grow up in the late 1800's. With what some of these poor young boys had gone through just find they're loved ones and to finish off their enemies is very hard to believe that had happened but unfortunately still happens today in other countries around the world. I took an interest in a species of tree that grows in the south of the US that unfortunately escaped my mind right now. If you love westerns definitely read this novel.

[Cactuskid · Rating 3 out of 5]

A different story about a white boy and an escaped slave boy traveling together to get from South Carolina to Texas, both for different reasons. This is close to the end of the Civil War and they are not really friends but end up depending on each other. The ending is a surprise too.

[Violet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great fast moving story ... not a lot of description just to fill pages.

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, if your into Westerns you'll enjoy this book.