false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175560556m/529474.jpg 529474 7 <P>Jeff Bussey walked briskly up the rutted wagon road toward Fort Leavenworth on his way to join the Union volunteers. It was 1861 in Linn County, Kansas, and Jeff was elated at the prospect of fighting for the North at last.</P> <P>In the Indian country south of Kansas there was dread in the air; and the name, Stand Watie, was on every tongue. A hero to the rebel, a devil to the Union man, Stand Watie led the Cherokee Indian Na-tion fearlessly and successfully on savage raids behind the Union lines. Jeff came to know the Watie men only too well.</P> <P>He was probably the only soldier in the West to see the Civil War from both sides and live to tell about it. Amid the roar of cannon and the swish of flying grape, Jeff learned what it meant to fight in battle. He learned how it felt never to have enough to eat, to forage for his food or starve. He saw the green fields of Kansas and Okla-homa laid waste by Watie's raiding parties, homes gutted, precious corn deliberately uprooted. He marched endlessly across parched, hot land, through mud and slash-ing rain, always hungry, always dirty and dog-tired.</P> <P>And, Jeff, plain-spoken and honest, made friends and enemies. The friends were strong men like Noah Babbitt, the itinerant printer who once walked from Topeka to Galveston to see the magnolias in bloom; boys like Jimmy Lear, too young to carry a gun but old enough to give up his life at Cane Hill; ugly, big-eared Heifer, who made the best sourdough biscuits in the Choctaw country; and beautiful Lucy Washbourne, rebel to the marrow and proud of it. The enemies were men of an-other breed - hard-bitten Captain Clardy for one, a cruel officer with hatred for Jeff in his eyes and a dark secret on his soul.</P> <P>This is a rich and sweeping novel-rich in its panorama of history; in its details so clear that the reader never doubts for a moment that he is there; in its dozens of different people, each one fully realized and wholly recognizable. It is a story of a lesser -- known part of the Civil War, the Western campaign, a part different in its issues and its problems, and fought with a different savagery. Inexorably it moves to a dramat-ic climax, evoking a brilliant picture of a war and the men of both sides who fought in it.</P> 118191 31 10 1987 Rifles for Watie total:458|5:142|4:174|3:102|2:32|1:8| 458 1784 609 75 3 0 false false Wed Dec 31 20:37:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 31 20:37:32 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jul 24 14:29:54 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 14:30:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 10 13:31:33 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 13:32:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 11 13:23:48 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 13:24:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Aug 12 00:00:00 -0700 1978 Wed Aug 12 10:36:50 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 10:43:28 -0700 2009 3+ as a kid Rifles for Watie was one of my favorite books when I was young; I don't know how many times I checked it out of the library.

I was pleasantly reminded of it (and another sentimental favorite, The Horse Soldiers) while reading David Donald's Lincoln. I can still reme...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 16:43:26 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 16:47:02 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Nov 04 14:20:12 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 04 14:20:12 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Aug 24 18:26:38 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 24 18:35:30 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 1975 Sun Jul 06 10:20:48 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 06 10:23:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false true Sat Aug 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 08:21:42 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 29 08:40:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 07:26:18 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 07:33:11 -0700 2008
This time around however, I suppose I was reading it with a more critical eye. Sometime...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 14:32:52 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 05:50:01 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1973 Wed Aug 26 16:05:06 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 26 16:07:32 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1995 Sat Mar 14 21:16:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 21:18:19 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Feb 03 20:07:53 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 03 20:09:54 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Nov 01 09:36:46 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 01 09:37:47 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1988 Tue Mar 10 14:54:20 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 10 14:56:11 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri May 29 19:21:48 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 19:22:36 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Mar 09 17:05:07 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 25 17:28:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Oct 02 22:29:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 22:32:43 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=529474