Book Details

The fall of Vicksburg made the Mississippi a Yankee river, eclipsing all rational Southern hope of prevailing in the War. But Richmond’s refusal of defeat, its bloodhound herding of backland “recruits” as of a lesser species, aroused a fierce and widespread rejection of further blood sacrifice. The towns and villages of the Pineys closed protectively about their sons and fathers, husbands and brothers—all that remained of a future, Lee Christmas was born in the War and shaped by the bloody chaos of the Peace that followed. As a youngster, he comes to admire James Mann, once a slave but now a Black warrior. For the Blacks had been compelled to form their own military in self-defense. After a pitched battle between James’ Black force and a “Regulator” force of Whites ends in a standoff and inferno, James is obliged to flee North, leaving his family behind. Years later, when James returns to recover his wife and children, Lee Christmas, now the Master of a river-schooner, hides James away to spirit him to safety from his enemies.

 

About the Author

D.R. McNachten

Following graduate work in English Literature and Playwriting, he spent just short of six years employed on deep-sea ships running out of New York into the Caribbean and down the West Coast of South America. More recently, he spent a decade researching the project and more than that in drafting the book and the Cycle it begins. Written mainly in Mr. McNachten spent just short of six years working on deep-sea ships that ran out of New York into the Caribbean and down the West Coast of South America. More recently, he spent a decade researching the project and more than that in drafting this book and the other books of the Christmas Chronicles. The writing was done mainly in Jalapa, the Capital of Veracruz State in Mexico. At an altitude of l0,000 feet, it lacked beaches and tourists, but it was heavy on coffee houses and the writer’s blessing of isolation.