Showing results by author "Johnny D. Boggs" in All Categories

Johnny D. Boggs turns the battlefield itself into a character in this historical retelling of Custer's Last Stand, when George Custer led most of his command to annihilation at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in southern Montana in 1876. More than 40 first-person narratives are used - Indian and white, military and civilian, men and women - to paint a panorama of the battle itself. Boggs brings the events and personalities of the Battle of the Little Bighorn to life in a series of first-hand accounts.

Tormented by Southern partisans, Missouri farm boy Caleb Cole joins the Union's 18th Missouri. About the same time, down on the Texas coast, violin-playing Ryan McCalla, from a well-to-do family, enlists in the Confederacy's Second Texas - mainly in the spirit of adventure - with some friends. The two teenagers are about to grow up quickly. Fate will bring the two together - along with a teenage girl from Corinth, Mississippi, when the Confederate and Union armies clash at Shiloh, Tennessee.

In The Big Fifty, another name for the famous Sharps rifle, reality of frontier life becomes brutally clear to 12-year-old Coady McIlvain. He falls in with a buffalo sharpshooter, and the two must survive the unforgiving terrain and hostile enemies.

The Civil War is over. The future of the American West is up for grabs. Any man crazy enough to lead a herd of Texas longhorns to the North stands to make a fortune - and make history. That man would be Nelson Story. A bold entrepreneur and miner, he knows a golden opportunity when he sees one. But it won't be easy. Cowboys and bandits have guns, farmers have sick livestock, and the army's got its own reasons to stop the drive. Even worse, Story's top hand is an ornery Confederate veteran who used to be his enemy.

Micah Bishop doesn't believe in miracles - until a derringer-packing nun busts him out of jail. But it's not Christian charity that's driving Sister Genevieve - she wants Micah to take her to a place called the Valley of Fire, deep in the most lawless and perilous part of New Mexico Territory. It was here where an order of nuns met their Maker, and it's Sister Genevieve's mission to see that they are given a proper funeral. Or so she claims.

In 1913, on the 50th anniversary of the Lawrence, Kansas, Massacre, former bushwhacker Cole Younger stands before a preacher at a tent revival. "I was, I remain, and I will always be a wicked man," Younger states, taking a step toward salvation. And for a man like Cole Younger, there is much to confess.

Three 12-year-olds, two notorious gunfighters, a half-crazed albino, and a grieving woman vie for $30,000 in gold coin, buried 20 years ago in treacherous Doubtful Cañon.

I do remember my first love Mad Carter MacRae recalls in this memoir of his early life. Her name was Estrella O Sullivan. I met her the summer I turned 16 back in 1873. The summer of 1873 marked my last drive up what these days they call the Chisholm Trail and what some were starting to call it back then. It was the first time I tasted oysters and the only time I pinned on a badge. It was the summer of longhorns of miserable heat of friendship and betrayal and of murder. In the end it was the summer the whole world came crumbling down on our United States. My world crashed too.

William Clarke Quantrill was a hated name during the War Between the States by the Federals of the Union Army as well as by many non-combatants. Even the high command of the Confederacy distrusted him. But there were others who were passionate sympathizers. He was both friend and mentor but also manipulator and opportunist. Alistair Durant was someone who came to know him in all these guises. Durant was a young Confederate soldier captured by the Yankees and released when he took an oath never again to bear arms against the Union.

They sing songs about Matthew Johnson. The hero of dime novels, Matt won national fame during a range war in Idaho when he shot and killed an outlaw - and former saddle pal. But the past 17 years have been an alcoholic blur rather than a heroic journey. Gone are the days when he was a free-wheeling cowboy, swapping poems with his best friend on the cattle ranges. The West has modernized - and practically disappeared - when Matt arrives in Denver in 1894 as the newly appointed US marshal for the state of Colorado.

Saddle tramp Sam MacKinnon is in trouble. Double-crossed by his partners after robbing a saloon and gambling hall, MacKinnon has been left behind in the mountains of southern New Mexico with busted ribs, a banged-up head, no gun, and no horse. And no chance - because aging lawman Nelson Bookbinder and his Mescalero Apache scout, Nikita - both made legendary by dime novels MacKinnon has read - are leading a small posse hot in pursuit of the bandits. Miraculously, MacKinnon escapes the law, finds his horse and rifle, and, despite his injuries, sets out on the vengeance trail.

Fifteen-year-old Evan Kendrick has traveled from New Mexico Territory to Galveston with his father, Edward, who will be competing in a horse race that's offering a $3,000 prize to the winner. But a terrible accident seriously injures Evan's drunken father, forcing Evan to saddle up instead. This is no ordinary race. Running from Texas to New England, its course is 1,800 miles - maybe even longer - and Evan will be riding a barely half-broke mustang stallion that he and his father caught.

William Lee Braden was no secessionist, no slave owner. In fact, when the polls opened in Jacksboro, Texas, on February 23, 1861, Braden rode 12 miles up Lost Creek from his small ranch not only to vote against secession, but on his ballot, right next to his signature, he wrote "For the Union forever". But come the fall of 1861, William Lee Braden rode off to join his brother Jacob in Harrisburg to fight, not for the Confederacy, but rather to defend the state of Texas from invasion and occupation. Braden left behind him his wife, Martha Jane Pierce Braden, and his six-year-old son.

All of the contributors to this book were friends and family of author Ellen Gray Massey, and all of them considered her a model of a strong woman. There was a consensus among contributors that their proceeds from the sale of this book be donated to charities that helped women. The charities chosen are: New Life Project, Lebanon, Missouri, and Tostan, Dignity for All.

Sam Houston is a living legend in 1861. The hero of the Battle of San Jacinto, he had defeated Santa Anna to win independence for Texas back in 1836. He had twice served as president of the Republic of Texas, helped Texas join the Union, and served as senator and governor of Texas. Before settling in Texas, he had been a hero of the Creek War and governor of Tennessee. He had been friends with Andrew Jackson and Davy Crockett and had been adopted into the Cherokee tribe.

Seventeen-year-old Silver King dreams of becoming a working cowboy. His mother, however, has pushed him to be a baseball player - and King certainly has the arm to be a star pitcher. When the National League forms a team in Kansas City in 1886, both mother and son get their wishes.

The South Carolina backcountry is no place for a young girl to grow up in the 1760s, but 16 year-old Emily Stewart wouldn't have it any other way. She loves the settlement of 96 where her father Breck Stewart runs a tavern with his family, including Emily's embittered older brother, Donnan. But there's much to fear, too. Gangs of murderers, thieves, and robbers terrorize the country with impunity. Pleas to the government in Charlestown fall on deaf ears.

It's the spring of 1864, and times are hard in Washington County, Arkansas, especially for 13-year-old Travis Ford. He hasn't heard from his father, a sergeant in the Second Arkansas Cavalry, in months. His mother is struggling to make ends meet on the family farm and abandoned sawmill near Poison Spring. All Travis really wants to do is to follow his passion - make up adventure stories in the style of Alexandre Dumas. But the Civil War keeps getting in his way.

William Clarke Quantrill was a hated name during the War Between the States by the Federals of the Union Army, as well as by many non-combatants. Even the high command of the Confederacy distrusted him. But there were others who were passionate sympathizers. He was both friend and mentor‚ but also manipulator and opportunist.

The summer of 1873 marked Madison's last drive up what is now called the Chisholm Trail. It was the first time he tasted oysters and the only time he pinned on a badge. It was the summer of longhorns, miserable heat, friendship and betrayal, and murder. In the end it was the summer the whole world came crumbling down on the United States, and Madison's world crashed, too. The summer of 1873 was the year Madison watched a bunch of men die. One of them was a man he killed, an encounter one never forgets.