Escape From Dixie

by John Dudley Ball

Captured with the entire Union garrison of four regiments at Plymouth, NC, on April 20, 1864, 1st Lt. John Lafler refused to accept his fate. It was a period when few prisoner exchanges were taking place so he persistently escaped FOUR times from Confederate prisons until he finally succeeded in reaching friendly lines. This is his story, from enrollment in 1861 to return to his upstate home three and a half years later. The account of the escapes is told in his own words, written shortly after his return in March, 1865. Surrounding this personal account is the background story of the wartime experiences of Lt. Lafler and the men of the 85th NY Volunteer Regiment.

109 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published January 1, 1996

About the author

John Dudley Ball writing as John Ball, was an American writer best known for mystery novels involving the African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs. He was introduced in the 1965 In the Heat of the Night where he solves a murder in a racist Southern small town. It won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America and was made into an Oscar-winning film of the same name starring Sidney Poitier; the film had two sequels, and spawned a television series several decades later, none of which were based on Ball's later Tibbs stories. He also wrote under the name John Ball Jr..

Ball was born in Schenectady, New York, grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and attended Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He wrote for a number of magazines and newspapers, including the Brooklyn Eagle. For a time he worked part-time as a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, was trained in martial arts, and was a nudist. In the mid 1980s, he was the book review columnist for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. Ball lived in Encino, California, and died there in 1988.