On the night of May 2, 1863, the
South's most beloved general, Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson, was shot while
reconnoitering the Union defenses near Chancellorsville, Virginia. On May 10, he
died of pneumonia which he contracted as a result of his weakened condition. It
had always been assumed that he was accidentally shot by his own men, and the
incident was dismissed as an act of capricious fate.
With this novel, author Benjamin
King makes a startling, thought-provoking contribution to the genre of
speculative historical fiction. Was Jackson mistakenly shot by his own men as
the historians tell us or was he the victim of an elaborate assassination plot
devised in the highest levels of the Union government?
Following the resounding
Confederate victory at Fredericksburg, the government in Washington was thrown
into a panic. Salmon Portland Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, realized that
the North must act quickly or the war would be lost. A plan began to
materialize, one which would permanently cripple the South by depriving it of
its most capable, most irreplaceable corps commander, Stonewall Jackson.
Painstakingly researched, A
Bullet for Stonewall traces the movements of a Union assassin as he
operates behind Southern lines, waiting for the one opportunity that will assure
the North of victory.
A native of New Haven, Connecticut,
Benjamin King now resides in Newport News, Virginia. A graduate of the
University of Connecticut, he served in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division
and was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism. King is former military historian
for the Casemate Museum at Fort Monroe. Currently, he designs simulations for
the U.S. Army Transportation School.
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