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Casca #27
The Confederate
PROLOGUE
Billy Brady screamed and clutched at the sudden rip in his worn gray sleeve, now stained with red. The Yankee lead bullet fired from a Springfield rifle fifty yards up the hill had been meant for his chest, but the growing darkness made accurate shooting difficult. Case swung his head to the left and anxiously watched as the boy, no more than sixteen years of age, staggered back from the wavering line of hard-pressed Confederate soldiers to join the drift of the wounded making their way back to the retreating lines of their comrades.
The delaying action the unit was engaged in was allowing the rest of the brigade to get away to Sharpsburg. The Union forces, vastly superior in numbers, had pushed them back off the ridge of the pass they were trying to hold and now they were giving ground downhill. Bodies marked their retreat and their line had shrunk as their casualties mounted. Most of them, like Billy, were merely wounded, and these men made their way as best they could down to the surgeons or along the road to Sharpsburg where the retreating Army of Northern Virginia was heading.
Hold firm! Sergeant Case Rafferty Lonnergan screamed, frantically ramming yet another lead bullet down the barrel of his rifled musket. The men of his platoon, part of J company of the 1st Virginia infantry regiment, grimly stood and kept on firing as the advancing blue uniforms closed in. To their left the South Carolinians of General Evans brigade were firing rapidly against the Pennsylvanians, the same who were pushing the Virginians back. To the right the sound of shooting had worryingly passed behind them, a sign that the exhausted Alabamians there had almost collapsed. He fumbled in the small leather pouch on his belt and withdrew another small percussion cap. He fitted it to the nipple of the musket and fully cocked the hammer.
Case glanced once more up at the darkening sky. Night was almost upon them. Ammunition was running out
Billy Brady screamed and clutched at the sudden rip in his worn gray sleeve, now stained with red. The Yankee lead bullet fired from a Springfield rifle fifty yards up the hill had been meant for his chest, but the growing darkness made accurate shooting difficult. Case swung his head to the left and anxiously watched as the boy, no more than sixteen years of age, staggered back from the wavering line of hard-pressed Confederate soldiers to join the drift of the wounded making their way back to the retreating lines of their comrades.
The delaying action the unit was engaged in was allowing the rest of the brigade to get away to Sharpsburg. The Union forces, vastly superior in numbers, had pushed them back off the ridge of the pass they were trying to hold and now they were giving ground downhill. Bodies marked their retreat and their line had shrunk as their casualties mounted. Most of them, like Billy, were merely wounded, and these men made their way as best they could down to the surgeons or along the road to Sharpsburg where the retreating Army of Northern Virginia was heading.
Hold firm! Sergeant Case Rafferty Lonnergan screamed, frantically ramming yet another lead bullet down the barrel of his rifled musket. The men of his platoon, part of J company of the 1st Virginia infantry regiment, grimly stood and kept on firing as the advancing blue uniforms closed in. To their left the South Carolinians of General Evans brigade were firing rapidly against the Pennsylvanians, the same who were pushing the Virginians back. To the right the sound of shooting had worryingly passed behind them, a sign that the exhausted Alabamians there had almost collapsed. He fumbled in the small leather pouch on his belt and withdrew another small percussion cap. He fitted it to the nipple of the musket and fully cocked the hammer.
Case glanced once more up at the darkening sky. Night was almost upon them. Ammunition was running out
First published May 2, 2014
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About the author
Tony Roberts
39 books11 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 13, 2021
One thing Roberts has done with this retelling of the American Civil War which includes Casca, is reveal the humanity of the common soldier and justice of the Confederate cause which I find admirable.
Shelby Foote painted the most stunning and completely accurate account of the Civil War I've ever read. While his account (which no author with the exception of Michael & Jeff Shaara) could possibly rival is breathtaking in its account and epic in its scope, he still wrote as a historian. The events take front seat while the opinions, perspectives and musings of a common individual were only of minor account.
While Roberts is certainly no Foote or Shaara, he does question the motives of both sides of the conflict and shows that the Federal Government under Lincoln needed to suspend personal liberty for all people in the midst of war and suppress the constitutional right of state representation in order to preserve the Union. Roberts shows the southern outrage of this action in the midst of the fight scenes. A wonderful moment in the book for me was when the doubts and misgivings of the Southern cause were voiced by Billy to Casca. Are they evil? Do they really support slavery by fighting for the institution of slavery although they own no slaves? Casca says that while slavery is wrong, he was fighting to defend the community and people of Virginia that he had come to care for and the rights that were being threatened for those citizens as Americans.
I think the author put biased 21st century ideas into text but the modern reader can certainly appreciate this moment of reflection on the motivations that inspired the Southern Cause.
As for the story, it jumps forward from 1862 with the battle of Antietam until 1865 with Appomattox Court House. Casca is pursued by the Brotherhood of the Lamb and continues to fight for a dying cause as he recalls these memories to Dr. Goldman in the early 21st century.
The story certainly kept my interest and I enjoyed many moments. What I can't forgive however, and what brings this story down to 3 stars are the list of grammatical mistakes I found throughout the book. There were at least 10-15 times I found the singular form of "Yankee" used with the proposition incorrectly or the determiner omitted (the Yankee are coming, when will Yankee get here?)
I don't know if Roberts was responsible or the person who converted the book from paperback to ebook is to blame, but at times the context read like a 5th or 6th grader wrote sections.
I can forgive these stupid mistakes. I am determined to finish the series someday. But this does tend to pull me out of the story and that is never a good sign.
Shelby Foote painted the most stunning and completely accurate account of the Civil War I've ever read. While his account (which no author with the exception of Michael & Jeff Shaara) could possibly rival is breathtaking in its account and epic in its scope, he still wrote as a historian. The events take front seat while the opinions, perspectives and musings of a common individual were only of minor account.
While Roberts is certainly no Foote or Shaara, he does question the motives of both sides of the conflict and shows that the Federal Government under Lincoln needed to suspend personal liberty for all people in the midst of war and suppress the constitutional right of state representation in order to preserve the Union. Roberts shows the southern outrage of this action in the midst of the fight scenes. A wonderful moment in the book for me was when the doubts and misgivings of the Southern cause were voiced by Billy to Casca. Are they evil? Do they really support slavery by fighting for the institution of slavery although they own no slaves? Casca says that while slavery is wrong, he was fighting to defend the community and people of Virginia that he had come to care for and the rights that were being threatened for those citizens as Americans.
I think the author put biased 21st century ideas into text but the modern reader can certainly appreciate this moment of reflection on the motivations that inspired the Southern Cause.
As for the story, it jumps forward from 1862 with the battle of Antietam until 1865 with Appomattox Court House. Casca is pursued by the Brotherhood of the Lamb and continues to fight for a dying cause as he recalls these memories to Dr. Goldman in the early 21st century.
The story certainly kept my interest and I enjoyed many moments. What I can't forgive however, and what brings this story down to 3 stars are the list of grammatical mistakes I found throughout the book. There were at least 10-15 times I found the singular form of "Yankee" used with the proposition incorrectly or the determiner omitted (the Yankee are coming, when will Yankee get here?)
I don't know if Roberts was responsible or the person who converted the book from paperback to ebook is to blame, but at times the context read like a 5th or 6th grader wrote sections.
I can forgive these stupid mistakes. I am determined to finish the series someday. But this does tend to pull me out of the story and that is never a good sign.
February 6, 2014
Great comeback from the last writer
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews