Wednesday, 1 November 2017

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: THE SHADOW WARRIORS by CAMERON JUDD

Prolific and distinguished author Cameron Judd (whose books tend to focus on the early frontier and Tennessee history) couldn’t pick an absolute favourite of his books (I know it’s a tough question!) but does have a particular fondness for his American Civil War/ Mountain War trilogy. His favourite character is Ben Scarlett, the town drunk of Knoxville, Tennessee, who is central to the trilogy. The first instalment, THE SHADOW WARRIORS, paints a bold picture of the turbulent first years of the Civil War in the mountains of Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina.



The Great Smoky Mountains North Carolina/ Tennessee

As the Civil War loomed Tennessee was a divided state. A referendum in February 1861 to secede from the United States was defeated by a 54–46% margin. But after the attack on Fort Sumter in April and the outbreak of hostilities, opinion shifted. On June 8, 1861, voters approved a second referendum calling for secession, and Tennessee became the last state to join the Confederacy.


Confederate soldiers at Shiloh, Tennessee 1862
Tennessee furnished more soldiers for the Confederate Army than any other state besides Virginia; but it also provided more soldiers for the Union Army than the rest of the Confederacy combined.


Confederate officers

SHADOW WARRIORS reflects the polarisations of Tennessee in that Amy Deacon, daughter of an arch-secessionist newspaperman, is secretly writing pamphlets for the pro-Union ‘Underground Railroad.’
In this place of bitter division, Falstaffian Ben Scarlett struggles to stay neutral… but can he succeed?
The ‘Underground Railroad’ was a network of secret routes and safe houses established during the early-to-mid 19th century. It was used by slaves in the Confederate states to escape into free states and Canada, helped by abolitionists and sympathetic allies. One estimate suggests more than 100,000 slaves escaped via the ‘Railroad.’



Fleeing slaves who used 'The Underground Railroad.'

Gone with the Wind’ may be (with allowances for monetary inflation) the most successful film in box-office history, but the American Civil War has not been an overly-popular subject in film and TV. Among the movies that have Civil War settings are ‘Raintree County,’ ‘Shenandoah,’ ‘The Horse Soldiers,’ ‘Glory’ and – a particular favourite of mine – ‘The Raid,’ from 1954, about a Confederate fifth column operating in Union Territory.



'Shenandoah' (1965)


'The Raid'



An engraving from Brownlow's Sketches, showing Confederate soldiers marching Union prisoners through the streets of Knoxville in December 1861

Publishers Weekly on CAMERON JUDD: ‘A keen observer of the human heart as well as a fine action writer.’
REVIEWS of THE SHADOW WARRIORS:
'Another great read by Cameron Judd. Mr. Judd's depth of historical knowledge of Tennessee history is vast, yet he is able to weave it seamlessly into his stories while creating great fictional characters.’

‘Very good plot development based on historical events.’

‘A terrific novel by an excellent author.’

‘Cameron Judd's Civil War trilogy illuminates a dark corner of the Civil War, making the era come to life with all the conflict and danger that characterized the war in the mountain south.’ -- Sharyn McCrumb, New York Times best-selling author

‘You would be hard-pressed to find a writer of historical novels better able to capture the dialects, the smells of rabbit cooking over an open fire, or the scent of breath sweetened with cedar twigs …the way Judd does here.’


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