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The Plainsmen #9
Reap the Whirlwind
“This account of battle on the plains brings the period to life.”— Publishers Weekly
Spring, 1876. The war cry has sounded. The Sioux and the Cheyenne are massing along the northern frontier. And even while his wife awaits the birth of their child, army scount Seamus Donegan knows he must head north to Fort Fetterman. Brigadier General George C. Crook is preparing to meet the fierce challenge laid down by the bold and brutal chief Crazy Horse, and the future hope of the nation rests in the strong hands and courageous hearts of men like Seamus Donegan. He yearns for a reunion with his wife, but the trail of that fateful campaign leads Donegan ever farther from home—toward the land of the Rosebud and a hard rain of blood and tears.
Spring, 1876. The war cry has sounded. The Sioux and the Cheyenne are massing along the northern frontier. And even while his wife awaits the birth of their child, army scount Seamus Donegan knows he must head north to Fort Fetterman. Brigadier General George C. Crook is preparing to meet the fierce challenge laid down by the bold and brutal chief Crazy Horse, and the future hope of the nation rests in the strong hands and courageous hearts of men like Seamus Donegan. He yearns for a reunion with his wife, but the trail of that fateful campaign leads Donegan ever farther from home—toward the land of the Rosebud and a hard rain of blood and tears.
493 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
20 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Terry C. Johnston
77 books102 followers Terry C. Johnston was born January 1, 1947 in Arkansas City, Kansas.
Nineteen publishers rejected Johnston's first novel, Carry the Wind, before it was printed in 1982. However, this first novel was to gain the honor of receiving the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer's Award for best first fiction. Johnston is known for his eye for historical detail, and he is a stickler for accuracy. He is known for traveling and exploring down known and unknown dusty roads during the hot summer months, and traversing slippery, muddy roads and hiking through snow to stand upon a historical sight that he would tell his readers in an upcoming book. "Parking in the lower lot, I trudged up the hill to reach the spot where Colonel John Gibbon's infantry waited out the last hours before their attack on the unsuspecting camp. Standing there in the icy snowstorm I was totally overwhelmed by the sight of those skeletal cones of lodgepoles standing stark against the low, gray sky . . ." Some of the sites that he would stand upon were known to the world like the Little Big Horn Battlefield and others would be obscure to the average reader like the Weippe Prairie north of Lochsa. He is known to combine "a roaring good tale with fascinating insights into the lives and times of his principal characters, generally managing to employ his extensive knowledge to enhance a story rather than intrude upon it" (Whitehead, 1991). Johnston would say that he considered himself "not a literary writer but a storyteller." His desire was to reach and teach thousands if not millions of readers about the early western frontier.
He accomplished part of this goal, not only through his books, but through discussions given to elementary children, lectures at symposiums, and historical one-week tours "during which you will re-live the grit and blood, the tears and tragedy of the great Indian Wars." He would blend historical fact with human emotion to re-create the past during his historical tours each summer. One presentation he gave to a fourth grade class was about the Plains Indian culture. He held a discussion with a Honors English class in Castle Rock middle school about "research, writing, and editing that goes into producing two historical novels each year, when compared to their "term papers." He gave keynote speeches at seminars and lectures at symposiums. He traveled all around Montana to sign books for fans, and he signed the books at the local Albertson's in each town. He held radio interviews that "took me into cities, talking before audiences, I never would have managed to reach otherwise."
Nineteen publishers rejected Johnston's first novel, Carry the Wind, before it was printed in 1982. However, this first novel was to gain the honor of receiving the Western Writers of America Medicine Pipe Bearer's Award for best first fiction. Johnston is known for his eye for historical detail, and he is a stickler for accuracy. He is known for traveling and exploring down known and unknown dusty roads during the hot summer months, and traversing slippery, muddy roads and hiking through snow to stand upon a historical sight that he would tell his readers in an upcoming book. "Parking in the lower lot, I trudged up the hill to reach the spot where Colonel John Gibbon's infantry waited out the last hours before their attack on the unsuspecting camp. Standing there in the icy snowstorm I was totally overwhelmed by the sight of those skeletal cones of lodgepoles standing stark against the low, gray sky . . ." Some of the sites that he would stand upon were known to the world like the Little Big Horn Battlefield and others would be obscure to the average reader like the Weippe Prairie north of Lochsa. He is known to combine "a roaring good tale with fascinating insights into the lives and times of his principal characters, generally managing to employ his extensive knowledge to enhance a story rather than intrude upon it" (Whitehead, 1991). Johnston would say that he considered himself "not a literary writer but a storyteller." His desire was to reach and teach thousands if not millions of readers about the early western frontier.
He accomplished part of this goal, not only through his books, but through discussions given to elementary children, lectures at symposiums, and historical one-week tours "during which you will re-live the grit and blood, the tears and tragedy of the great Indian Wars." He would blend historical fact with human emotion to re-create the past during his historical tours each summer. One presentation he gave to a fourth grade class was about the Plains Indian culture. He held a discussion with a Honors English class in Castle Rock middle school about "research, writing, and editing that goes into producing two historical novels each year, when compared to their "term papers." He gave keynote speeches at seminars and lectures at symposiums. He traveled all around Montana to sign books for fans, and he signed the books at the local Albertson's in each town. He held radio interviews that "took me into cities, talking before audiences, I never would have managed to reach otherwise."
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 15, 2017
Like most of the books in this series, the author is really good breaking down the featured battle. His character interactions and dialogue however are pretty bad. Good battle description, bad character development.
September 17, 2024
Extraordinary! One of Johnston's very best! I couldn't lay this book down, and the epilogue about the current state of this historical battlefield made the book even better!
May 29, 2022
This fictionalized account of the Battle of Rosebud during the Indian Wars, was long on fiction and short on history. I'm sure Johnston has his fans of the old west genre but it wasn't to my liking. The conversations were corny and he threw in a bunch of salacious gossip about Calamity Jane. Unless you like this sort of thing, just read the afterword. It pretty much tells the story.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews