The Tempering Years: Of a Man and a Nation

A Civil War novel about "The Tempering Years" of our country, the decade of the Civil War -- a period fraught with strife, romance, greed, espionage, and disaster. More than any other era in American history, the Civil War years molded our nation. The story follows Nathan, a seminary student who leaves school to begin his real education as a private in the Union Army. See the Civil War period through his eyes as he bands together with his Unit, through battles, prison camp and disaster. Many incidents woven into this work of fiction are based on actual first-hand accounts - the ghosts of Bellville, the murder of General Nelson, Cahaba Prison, the surrender of fort Athens, Alabama and the Sultana disaster to name a few. Adventures of the 102nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, as related in an old history of Richland County, captured my imagination when I came across them one summer years ago while visiting my grandmother in Mansfield, Ohio. Writing and publishing their story has been a life-long ambition, now finally achieved. The Union won the Civil War, but the loss of so many of our finest young men on both sides of the conflict was a tragedy of such magnitude the cost can never be calculated. A number of the incidents in this fictionalized account have been taken from the memoirs of old soldiers, especially those pertaining to the sinking of the steamship Sultana. This tragic inland sea disaster of unparalleled proportions has been largely ignored in history books, overshadowed by two events that occurred earlier in the same month: General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.