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The Captive Boy
Col. Mac McKenna's Fourth Cavalry recaptures white captive August Shiltz from the Comanche, only to find August is determined to return to the Indians. McKenna attempts to civilize August and becomes the boy's foster father. But when August kills another boy in a fight, McKenna rejects him. August escapes from Fort Richards (Texas), and when war with the Comanche breaks out, McKenna discovers August is a war leader–and his greatest enemy.
171 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 16, 2015
15 people want to read
About the author
Julia Robb
12 books73 followersBecause my father was attending Centenary College, in Shreveport, Louisiana, when I was born, I was born in the Shreveport hospital. My parents are from Texas and we returned home when I was two weeks old. Not being born on Texas soil was a source of great shame for me as I was growing up (my four sisters and brothers knew this and teased me constantly). We Texans love our state. I have now lived in every part of Texas, actually, in fourteen towns (my dad was a Methodist pastor). I love the mesas which start past Waco, driving west, the Hill Country, with its bluebonnets, the tiny Czech and German towns where you can find the most delicious kolaches, and the Davis Mountains, green rolling hills. Most of all; I love The Big Bend, bordering Mexico with Chihuahuan desert, with the rugged Chisos Mountains crowned with Ponderosa Pine, with the serpentine Rio Grande.
I set "Scalp Mountain" and "Saint of the Burning Heart" in the Davis Mountains and The Big Bend. I called them something else, but that's where the heart of the books live, as does mine.
Scalp was published in Feb. 2012, Saint in Feb. 2013 and "Del Norte" in Dec. 2013.
I set "Scalp Mountain" and "Saint of the Burning Heart" in the Davis Mountains and The Big Bend. I called them something else, but that's where the heart of the books live, as does mine.
Scalp was published in Feb. 2012, Saint in Feb. 2013 and "Del Norte" in Dec. 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 18, 2015
Captive Boy becomes the colonel’s greatest enemy
The Captive Boy opens with August Shiltz being forced into the office of Col. Mac McKeena at Fort Richards. The colonel attempts to take the boy under his wings and goes the extra mile in his attempt to do so. August resists any attempt at assimilation, insisting he is from the Quahadi Band of the Comanche. When McKenna sends August to school with other kids from the Fort, one in particular makes a habit of taunting August. After a series of confrontations, August kills the trouble maker and flees.
A short time later, a supply train to Fort Richards is ambushed by hundreds of Comanche. One of the teamsters was brutally tortured and disfigured. After an investigation soldiers found a calling card. August had become the leader of the band of attackers.
I’m a big fan of Julia Robb’s novels. This has become a new favorite. Set during the Red River Indian War, it covers a vast expanse from Fredericksburg, Texas in the south to the Llano Estacado in the north and from the southern plains to Santa Fe. Now the best Indian fighter in the Army with his 4th Cavalry follow the trails and scouts to track down the brutal Comanche in a life or death struggle. The story is told through the eyes of witnesses though journals and other historical documents in a style that reads a fresh as the morning news.
The author, Julia Robb, thoroughly researched the period and the places. Her characters have rich, realistic, multi-dimensional traits. It’s a complex story with emotional swings, tragedy and atrocities. That said, it doesn’t try to hide the realities of war and does not blush in the presentation of those hard facts.
You’ll find a rich, literary quality to The Captive Boy. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
My review is based on an advanced reader copy for a fair review.
The Captive Boy opens with August Shiltz being forced into the office of Col. Mac McKeena at Fort Richards. The colonel attempts to take the boy under his wings and goes the extra mile in his attempt to do so. August resists any attempt at assimilation, insisting he is from the Quahadi Band of the Comanche. When McKenna sends August to school with other kids from the Fort, one in particular makes a habit of taunting August. After a series of confrontations, August kills the trouble maker and flees.
A short time later, a supply train to Fort Richards is ambushed by hundreds of Comanche. One of the teamsters was brutally tortured and disfigured. After an investigation soldiers found a calling card. August had become the leader of the band of attackers.
I’m a big fan of Julia Robb’s novels. This has become a new favorite. Set during the Red River Indian War, it covers a vast expanse from Fredericksburg, Texas in the south to the Llano Estacado in the north and from the southern plains to Santa Fe. Now the best Indian fighter in the Army with his 4th Cavalry follow the trails and scouts to track down the brutal Comanche in a life or death struggle. The story is told through the eyes of witnesses though journals and other historical documents in a style that reads a fresh as the morning news.
The author, Julia Robb, thoroughly researched the period and the places. Her characters have rich, realistic, multi-dimensional traits. It’s a complex story with emotional swings, tragedy and atrocities. That said, it doesn’t try to hide the realities of war and does not blush in the presentation of those hard facts.
You’ll find a rich, literary quality to The Captive Boy. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
My review is based on an advanced reader copy for a fair review.
December 18, 2015
I was fortunate to be given a final draft version of Julia Robb's latest work, The Captive Boy. It is a fascinating true to life tale on the Texas frontier in the early 1870s. Ms. Robb's thorough research and deft grasp of the history surrounding both native and army cultures of that fascinating era is remarkable. Coupled with her personal knowledge of the majestic Texas landscape, Ms. Robb weaves a compelling story of a young German emigrant child who is abducted by a Comanche band who killed his family. Adopted by the chief, assimilated into Comanche society, and raised a warrior, he is recaptured by the U.S. Cavalry as a teenager. Resistant to the honest, if not futile, attempts to reintegrate him into the white world, the boy makes his escape and swears revenge on the Cavalry. Robb captures the terror of Michno's A Fate Worse Than Death and the engrossing narrative of a Terry C. Johnston novel using a complex style similar to how Bram Stoker presented Dracula, told from various diaries, newspapers, letters, journals, etc., each presented from different perspectives.. Her characters have depth and the action moves the story along at a rapid pace. I don't often read fiction, but greatly enjoyed Julia Robb's The Captive Boy.
December 18, 2015
This is an awesome book. The author skillfully weaves the story of the attempted repatriation of a young boy that had been captured by the Comanches and had now been recaptured by the US Cavalry through a series of news dispatches, diary entries, and an unpublished novel. Viewing the story progressively through the eyes of several characters we gain insights into the two main characters August Schiltz and Colonel Theodore (Mac) Mckenna. The difficulty of weaving one continuous narrative through the reports and eyes of several characters should not be underestimated. Author Julia Robb pulls it off magnificently. Her powers of description are amazing. You will feel as though you are there with the characters in the moment as she pulls all five senses into play expertly. It will capture you and keep you engaged from the beginning all the way through the end and also give you insights into the difficulties faced by those who fought on both sides of the Indian Wars in Texas after the Civil War. Buy this book. You will not be disappointed.
June 23, 2018
One of the many hardships endured by settlers along the Texas frontier was the abduction of their children by the Comanche. The Captive Boy by Julia Robb looks at the emotional toll and tragic consequences of these abductions in the story of one such captive.
The author uses the perspectives of different characters in the book to advance the plot. This approach is simultaneously the strength and lure of the story as well as a challenge to readers to funnel the multiple points of view into a cohesive body of work. Each of the character’s accounts is presented as either a memoir, a journal entry, or even a novel within the novel, which certainly adds to the story’s authenticity, however it also means that the writing styles vary from first to third person and the sequencing of events is not always chronological.
The fictional anthology alternates between the memoirs of Joseph Finley Grant, “With the Fourth Cavalry in Texas,” published as a serial in 1899, “On the Frontier with McKenna,” published in 1878 by Major Sam Brennan, the journal of Dr. Rufus Champ covering 1870-1874, and an Untitled Novel, discovered at West Point, author unknown.
Just as there are alternating viewpoints, there are multiple subplots – the violent confrontations between Native Americans, settlers and soldiers; acts of torture and brutality perpetrated by both sides; murder, suicide, and frontier justice; as well as the hidden agendas, tested loyalties, and romantic relationships that threaten both friendships and military careers. At the heart of the the story, however, is the relationship between August Shiltz and Colonel Theodore McKenna.
Captured at age nine, August is adopted into the Comanche tribe as the son of a war chief and isn’t returned to white society until five years later. By this time he has accepted his new identity and lifestyle, but Colonel McKenna is determined to make him forget his former life as an Indian. He becomes a surrogate father to the boy and almost succeeds before fate intervenes. After another officer’s son bullies and even physically attacks August, he retaliates by killing his tormentor which leads McKenna to denounce August as a savage. The boy escapes and returns to the Comanche where he will become a warrior and enact his vengeance. The climactic ending plays out in the context of the Indian Wars.
As someone who has researched and written about this period in Texas history, I lobbied for the opportunity to read and review this book. I devoured it in a few nights, but confess to some trepidation writing this critique. Certainly the style is unique. It’s as if the reader is pouring through actual historical documents rather than reading a novel. Since each account is dissimilar in its presentation, the whole doesn’t come together until the very end.
Initially I found this style distracting, but credit Julia Robb with forging a detailed, historically accurate portrait of the Texas frontier, and a poignant tale of psychological trauma and self-discovery.
The author uses the perspectives of different characters in the book to advance the plot. This approach is simultaneously the strength and lure of the story as well as a challenge to readers to funnel the multiple points of view into a cohesive body of work. Each of the character’s accounts is presented as either a memoir, a journal entry, or even a novel within the novel, which certainly adds to the story’s authenticity, however it also means that the writing styles vary from first to third person and the sequencing of events is not always chronological.
The fictional anthology alternates between the memoirs of Joseph Finley Grant, “With the Fourth Cavalry in Texas,” published as a serial in 1899, “On the Frontier with McKenna,” published in 1878 by Major Sam Brennan, the journal of Dr. Rufus Champ covering 1870-1874, and an Untitled Novel, discovered at West Point, author unknown.
Just as there are alternating viewpoints, there are multiple subplots – the violent confrontations between Native Americans, settlers and soldiers; acts of torture and brutality perpetrated by both sides; murder, suicide, and frontier justice; as well as the hidden agendas, tested loyalties, and romantic relationships that threaten both friendships and military careers. At the heart of the the story, however, is the relationship between August Shiltz and Colonel Theodore McKenna.
Captured at age nine, August is adopted into the Comanche tribe as the son of a war chief and isn’t returned to white society until five years later. By this time he has accepted his new identity and lifestyle, but Colonel McKenna is determined to make him forget his former life as an Indian. He becomes a surrogate father to the boy and almost succeeds before fate intervenes. After another officer’s son bullies and even physically attacks August, he retaliates by killing his tormentor which leads McKenna to denounce August as a savage. The boy escapes and returns to the Comanche where he will become a warrior and enact his vengeance. The climactic ending plays out in the context of the Indian Wars.
As someone who has researched and written about this period in Texas history, I lobbied for the opportunity to read and review this book. I devoured it in a few nights, but confess to some trepidation writing this critique. Certainly the style is unique. It’s as if the reader is pouring through actual historical documents rather than reading a novel. Since each account is dissimilar in its presentation, the whole doesn’t come together until the very end.
Initially I found this style distracting, but credit Julia Robb with forging a detailed, historically accurate portrait of the Texas frontier, and a poignant tale of psychological trauma and self-discovery.
February 15, 2020
"The morning began with a clear blue sky and cool wind, with meadowlarks soaring from the long grass on slightly rolling prairie with wildflowers of all colors covering the land."
First, I’ve taken several graduate-level anthropology classes and I’ve read historical books on Native Americans and basically how our ancestors conquered them and drove them to reservations. Most accounts are not pretty.
Second, The Captive Boy could really be one of those nonfiction historical books relating a brief segment of time during the 1800s when the Indian wars were occurring.
Third, wow - the ending I never saw coming!
The Captive Boy is told and written with the voice of a newspaper reporter, Joe Grant, along with other historical journal entries. This unique storytelling gives this book life with a fresh voice. The story recounts how the army saved one German boy from the Comanche and how hatred over a bison calf drove a wedge between the boy and the man who tried his best to save him.
The dialogue-driven book places readers into the hardships of early life for men serving in the army while they were fighting the Indians. The journal excerpts from the camp doctor are very revealing and probably hold some truth to what it was like for doctors of that era to treat wounded men. Plus, it left me wondering if only doctors still employed natural treatments like the use of prickly pear, instead of chemicals, maybe our world and our health might be better.
Author, Julia Robb, realistically incorporates what the Llano Estacado looked like before ranching, farming, and settlement became the norm in the region. The grasses were so tall that they could indeed disguise horses and men alike. There were reports that the Llano Estacado had one of the largest prairie dog towns in the U.S. numbering into the millions, alongside bison, or how it seems the wind is always blowing on the Llano.
"It took us an entire day to pass one prairie dog town. So many prairie dogs lived in this town we heard a hum while we passed, like the hum of a human city."
Robb created a near realistic journey into the world of betrayal, hope, love, war, and friendship centered around a captive boy named August. She ended the book perfectly – with an ending I never saw coming or imagined. My only wish – was seeing the actual drawings so often referenced by Grant. It would’ve made the story much more in-depth and meaningful.
Thanks, Julia for a fantastic read.
First, I’ve taken several graduate-level anthropology classes and I’ve read historical books on Native Americans and basically how our ancestors conquered them and drove them to reservations. Most accounts are not pretty.
Second, The Captive Boy could really be one of those nonfiction historical books relating a brief segment of time during the 1800s when the Indian wars were occurring.
Third, wow - the ending I never saw coming!
The Captive Boy is told and written with the voice of a newspaper reporter, Joe Grant, along with other historical journal entries. This unique storytelling gives this book life with a fresh voice. The story recounts how the army saved one German boy from the Comanche and how hatred over a bison calf drove a wedge between the boy and the man who tried his best to save him.
The dialogue-driven book places readers into the hardships of early life for men serving in the army while they were fighting the Indians. The journal excerpts from the camp doctor are very revealing and probably hold some truth to what it was like for doctors of that era to treat wounded men. Plus, it left me wondering if only doctors still employed natural treatments like the use of prickly pear, instead of chemicals, maybe our world and our health might be better.
Author, Julia Robb, realistically incorporates what the Llano Estacado looked like before ranching, farming, and settlement became the norm in the region. The grasses were so tall that they could indeed disguise horses and men alike. There were reports that the Llano Estacado had one of the largest prairie dog towns in the U.S. numbering into the millions, alongside bison, or how it seems the wind is always blowing on the Llano.
"It took us an entire day to pass one prairie dog town. So many prairie dogs lived in this town we heard a hum while we passed, like the hum of a human city."
Robb created a near realistic journey into the world of betrayal, hope, love, war, and friendship centered around a captive boy named August. She ended the book perfectly – with an ending I never saw coming or imagined. My only wish – was seeing the actual drawings so often referenced by Grant. It would’ve made the story much more in-depth and meaningful.
Thanks, Julia for a fantastic read.
June 21, 2018
The mixture of excerpts and accounts (including from a reporter, a doctor, and various other people) provides an air of believably in The Captive Boy, making it read more like nonfiction rather than fiction. While many children were no doubt captured by the Comanche, this book is an account of the aftermath of a fictional event that is entertaining, harrowing, and heartbreaking.
The book has August Shiltz, the captive boy, as the central theme; however, I find it centers more on Colonel McKenna and his doomed attempt to bring August back into white civilization. The picture painted by the eye witnesses is one of sadness and hardship and failure on both sides (August and his Comanche people and McKenna and the people under his watch at Fort Richards).
My favorite part of The Captive Boy comes from Dr. Rufus Champ's journal. Because of the fort's woeful lack of medical supplies, Dr. Champ is forced to rely on natural remedies, such as honey, thistle roots, and prickly pear cactus. This part of the story fascinated me the most because I'm an advocate for looking to nature first to cure what ails, and Dr. Champ's ability to help his patients without the benefits of modern medicine (in those days) is quite remarkable and commendable.
The structure of switching between viewpoints can be a bit tricky to navigate in the beginning, but that variety of accounts provides a more rounded view of events and impressions of how the situation with August was handled and how the overall events played out. Each person's view comes with the baggage of profession, knowledge, and personal feelings, so this structure appropriately allows the reader to see everything from every angle. The characters are all naturally flawed and pay a heavy price for their flaws, misjudgments, choices, and alliances.
The overall dynamics between August and Colonel McKenna and the sorrowful love story between Ben and Juana will break your heart and leave you contemplating how some people are destined to hurt and kill, some are destined to mitigate and heal, some are destined to command and conquer, and some are destined to piece it all together and tell the story.
The book has August Shiltz, the captive boy, as the central theme; however, I find it centers more on Colonel McKenna and his doomed attempt to bring August back into white civilization. The picture painted by the eye witnesses is one of sadness and hardship and failure on both sides (August and his Comanche people and McKenna and the people under his watch at Fort Richards).
My favorite part of The Captive Boy comes from Dr. Rufus Champ's journal. Because of the fort's woeful lack of medical supplies, Dr. Champ is forced to rely on natural remedies, such as honey, thistle roots, and prickly pear cactus. This part of the story fascinated me the most because I'm an advocate for looking to nature first to cure what ails, and Dr. Champ's ability to help his patients without the benefits of modern medicine (in those days) is quite remarkable and commendable.
The structure of switching between viewpoints can be a bit tricky to navigate in the beginning, but that variety of accounts provides a more rounded view of events and impressions of how the situation with August was handled and how the overall events played out. Each person's view comes with the baggage of profession, knowledge, and personal feelings, so this structure appropriately allows the reader to see everything from every angle. The characters are all naturally flawed and pay a heavy price for their flaws, misjudgments, choices, and alliances.
The overall dynamics between August and Colonel McKenna and the sorrowful love story between Ben and Juana will break your heart and leave you contemplating how some people are destined to hurt and kill, some are destined to mitigate and heal, some are destined to command and conquer, and some are destined to piece it all together and tell the story.
June 29, 2018
I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest and thoughtful review.
Combining multiple formats and perspectives, this fascinating story wove together to provide a true to life take on the hardships facing those within the Texas frontier in the late 1800s. Although the crux of this chronicle is Colonel McKenna’s attempt to reintegrate August, we become privvy to the struggles facing soldiers, Native Americans, and settlers alike.
Each character’s account is told through various journal entries, letters, news reports, memoirs, and a serial novel written during that time discovered at West Point. While each narrative moves progressively to reveal profound insights into this time in history as well as introducing compelling subplots, this approach to telling the story was certainly a challenge for me given that I’m not generally a fan of multi-format novels. Some aspects of this style had me invested until I felt suddenly jarred out of the story when the presentation shifted. Despite feeling most connected when reading the doctor’s journal due to my own experiences within the ranks of the military, there were moments I became slightly detached when the story slipped into excerpts from manuscripts. However, personal preference aside, there is no denying that this was an engaging and beautifully descriptive piece of fiction that was not only historically accurate based on the author’s own extensive research, but incredibly readable. As you comb through this fictional anthology, there is a sense that this method of writing allows the reader to feel as though he or she is making history as all the points of view collected from these historical documents are pieced together in a highly climactic ending. This complex style adds layers of authenticity to richly detail tragic and tender moments in the course of a traumatic time in Texas history.
Overall, readers of nonfiction will enjoy this book for its homage to the genre's more common structural devices while giving fiction fans a remarkable glimpse into history with Robb's unique storytelling ability.
Combining multiple formats and perspectives, this fascinating story wove together to provide a true to life take on the hardships facing those within the Texas frontier in the late 1800s. Although the crux of this chronicle is Colonel McKenna’s attempt to reintegrate August, we become privvy to the struggles facing soldiers, Native Americans, and settlers alike.
Each character’s account is told through various journal entries, letters, news reports, memoirs, and a serial novel written during that time discovered at West Point. While each narrative moves progressively to reveal profound insights into this time in history as well as introducing compelling subplots, this approach to telling the story was certainly a challenge for me given that I’m not generally a fan of multi-format novels. Some aspects of this style had me invested until I felt suddenly jarred out of the story when the presentation shifted. Despite feeling most connected when reading the doctor’s journal due to my own experiences within the ranks of the military, there were moments I became slightly detached when the story slipped into excerpts from manuscripts. However, personal preference aside, there is no denying that this was an engaging and beautifully descriptive piece of fiction that was not only historically accurate based on the author’s own extensive research, but incredibly readable. As you comb through this fictional anthology, there is a sense that this method of writing allows the reader to feel as though he or she is making history as all the points of view collected from these historical documents are pieced together in a highly climactic ending. This complex style adds layers of authenticity to richly detail tragic and tender moments in the course of a traumatic time in Texas history.
Overall, readers of nonfiction will enjoy this book for its homage to the genre's more common structural devices while giving fiction fans a remarkable glimpse into history with Robb's unique storytelling ability.
June 14, 2017
An in depth look at the psychological aspects of captive children. The boy had been taken young and a adopted into a tribe, then taken back years later by US soldiers. The back and forth of the narrative was chunky which is the only reason I give this a four star review.
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March 25, 2019Average rating 4.3 for the Lone Star Book Blog Tours team.
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