JOURNEY TO SHILOH

by Will Henry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 10, 1960

The story of 7 boys from Concho County in west Texas who head for Virginia to fight for the South covers a lot of territory physically as well as emotionally. The youngest 15, the oldest 20, it is 17 year old Buck Burnet who is the leader and he faces mutiny as well as weakness, sickness and death, but gets his group, not to Richmond, but to the bitterest battle of the Civil War- Shiloh. They hit a cyclone, Buck has to do an amputation, they sell their horses, JC is fleeced by gamblers and killed, Buck is jailed but helped by the marshal to escape, they help a runaway slave and see him punished by hanging, and their know-how with horses gets them enlisted in Johnston's Army of the Mississippi. Buck becomes Bragg's personal courier and is on hand for the dissension among Johnston, Beauregard and Bragg. He is part of the collapse in front of the Union strength, Bragg's classic rearguard action in keeping of 50,000 Union troops for 9 hours; he becomes a fugitive, is wounded and loses an arm, and, in trying to find the last of their group, is able to escape Bragg's firing squad and head for home. Yeasty with its young buffalo grass boys, tough in its action, graphic on the battlefield, this tells its story with accomplished ease and dash.

Pub Date: Oct. 10, 1960

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1960

Categories: FICTION