New Release -- HARPER’S RESCUE by Sean K. Gabhann — Giveaway!

The Shiloh Trilogy

Book Two

Disgraced Federal officer James Harper must redeem his honor and face down his enemies if he intends to stay in the Union Army and avoid his scheduled court martial. Recruited by General Grant’s spymaster, Harper must prove that whore monger Franklin Bosley is a Confederate conspirator—a man who has no scruples, and will do anything it takes to see to his own “cause” above all else.

              

Harper realizes that Bosley and his men are a threat to the Union Army—but that’s not all. Maggie, the woman who has broken through Harper’s emotional walls, is also in immediate danger. Harper has to act fast or there will be more deaths on his conscience—and Maggie’s is one he couldn’t bear.

Meanwhile, indentured saloon girl Katie Malloy must find her own way to escape Bosley—or die. Finding solace in the arms of one of Harper’s men whom she has come to love, she realizes in one terrible moment that she cannot depend on him to rescue her—she must do that herself, even if it means murder.

Once at odds with Lieutenant Harper, Corporal Gustav Magnusson begins to understand that Harper will see this mission through or die trying. He’s going to need Magnusson’s help—but who can they trust? There may be just one way out alive—if they can both survive long enough to put their daring plan into action for HARPER’S RESCUE…

EXCERPT:

     A small paddle-wheeler emerged from behind the far side of the wharf boats. It made its way along the outside of the blazing boats, taking care to stay at a safe distance. As more of the boat moved into view, the crew attacked the fires with water shot from nozzles the size of small cannons mounted on pedestals, far more powerful than those ashore. The paddle-wheeler used its side-paddles in combination to hold the craft in place against the river current. Its hoses doused the flames on the far side of each blazing craft.
     The fiercest blazes rose where none of the hoses could reach, inside the deck houses of the two doomed craft. Before the fireboat reached the end of the wharf, flames burst through portholes and doors on the burning boats. These re-ignited the stores along the exterior decks. No one was organizing parties to fight the infernos inside their deckhouses. “I guess they’ll let the boats burn themselves out,” Harper said.
     The two longboats had returned. They pulled alongside the fireboat. After a short conference, the crews on two of the hoses redirected their coverage to the foredeck of the leading inferno. Under cover of this spray, the longboat crew attached a hawser. Firefighters on the wharf braved the heat to cast off the lines and the two longboats worked in tandem to haul the blazing wreck into the channel, away from the town. Once clear of the wharf and the undamaged craft anchored nearby, the tow boats set the doomed vessel adrift.
     “What will happen to the boat now, James?”
     “I’m not a riverman, but I’d guess—”
     A brilliant light flashed the entire scene into black-and-white silhouette. A second later:
     Boom!
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On Confederates, Conquistadors, Crusaders, Carolingians, and Centurions

Christopher Columbus

As an amateur historian, I sometimes find it disingenuous to ascribe labels of "good" and "evil" to the motivations of people in the past, especially to demonize the heroes of those eras in order to promote political agendas of the present.  

For example, in my novel Harper's Donelson, Lieutenant Jamie Harper fights to restore the Union and is, at best, neutral towards the issue of slavery and a member of Bedford Forrest's staff quotes from the Bible as the justification for slavery.  In the same vein, Katie Malloy is a teen-aged prostitute who, we learn, would rather commit suicide than be forced to lay with a mulatto.  Are these views to be held against them by a modern reader?  I think not. 

Slavery has been part of the human condition since before civilization began and is still with us. The common morality in the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century, the era of Manifest Destiny, justified slavery under the belief that all non-whites were inferior species and not alternate races of the same species. Some religious denominations actually preached this belief from the pulpit. How can we expect the common man of the era to believe differently?

Yes, it is true that there were abolitionists who violently opposed  these views, but they were a minority.  Neither Jamie Harper or Katie Malloy pay attention to the politics of the abolitionists.  They are focused on the travails of their own lives.

So, are Jamie and Katie good or evil?  I believe they are an accurate representation of the values of that age.  They are people of their time.  I won't condemn them for not caring about the evils of slavery based on our twenty-first century values .  They don't live in my century.

The people of the past lived under different belief systems than we do in the present. I find it difficult to believe than most modern persons would behave any differently than they, had they lived among popular ideologies of the past.

 

Sean Gabhann

 

What are your thoughts?

 

Harper's Donelson is available from Amazon, Barnes and Nobel e-store, Smashwords, and Kobo.

 

Sean Kevin Gabhann is a Vietnam-era combat veteran of the US Navy.  He first became interested in American Civil War history during the centennial celebration and he owns an extensive library of primary and secondary material related to Civil War.  He especially wants to write about campaigns in the West because of a fascination with the careers of U.S Grant and W.T. Sherman.  Gabhann lives in San Diego, California with his wife, four sons, two daughters-in-law, three grandsons, three dogs and a cat named Pepper who sometimes thinks she’s a dog.