Ray
Foster, who writes westerns as JACK GILES, tells me a favourite of his own novels
is REBEL RUN.
This
is more an ‘eastern’ than a western, as the location is the ‘Island,’ a POW
camp in the eastern states where Confederate Prisoners are held during the
American Civil War. This is Ray delving into POW escape territory, not surprising given two
of his favourite books are Pat Reid's 'The
Colditz Story' and Charles McCormac's 'You'll
Die In Singapore.'
In REBEL RUN Confederate
artilleryman Van Essen masterminds the escape, which involves a death-defying
race down river rapids; but this is only the beginning of the dangers the
escapees will face as they attempt to break through the enemy lines and rejoin
the Confederate Army.
Ray
is rightly proud of the research that went into the novel, conducted prior to
the age of Google. Some Civil War POW camps acquired a grim reputation for
inhuman conditions. During a period of 14 months, 28% of the Union prisoners
held at Camp Sumter, near Andersonville, Georgia died.
The
infamous Andersonville Prison Camp
At
Camp Douglas in Chicago, 10% of its Confederate prisoners died during one cold
winter month;
Confederate
prisoners at Camp Douglas
and
the death rate of 25% at Elmira Prison in New York State very nearly equalled
that of Andersonville.
In
total about 56,000 soldiers died in prisons during the war, accounting for
almost 10% of all Civil War fatalities.
Various
movies have been set or part-set in Civil War prison camps: MAJOR DUNDEE,
BEN
JOHNSON, RICHARD HARRIS and WARREN OATES in Major
Dundee (1965)
TWO
FLAGS WEST
JOSEPH
COTTEN and ARTHUR HUNNICUTT in ‘Two Flags
West’ (1950)
and
a particular favourite of mine - THE RAID (1954.)
VAN
HEFLIN, PETER GRAVES and LEE MARVIN in ‘The
Raid’ (1954)
Not
forgetting MYSTERIOUS ISLAND!
Mysterious Island (1961)
Reviews
of REBEL RUN:
‘A
brilliantly told and well-researched story that kept me hooked to the last
page.'
‘…Great,
a prison break story and a chase. Action packed, with really good interesting
characters.'
and
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