Play for a KingdomMay, 1964. In a moment of quiet during the endgame between Grant and Lee, a Union and a Confederate company meet - not entirely by accident. The Union soldiers are part of the 14th Brooklyn, a motley company born of Irish, English, and German stock, all of them ragged and worn from the Battle of the Wilderness. Left behind on picket duty to guard their army's flank, the soldiers decide to relax with a baseball and bat, when, as if by magic, a company of Alabama infantry appears from the woods. These ordinary soldiers determine to play baseball with the enemy, perhaps for diversion, perhaps to remind themselves that they are still human. In the ensuing days, Brooklyn meets Alabama four more times on the playing field, even as they and their armies collide in the horror now known as Spotsylvania. As every game and every skirmish bring them closer to either court-martial or a violent and anonymous end, what began as a game turns into a business as serious as death and dishonor. Friends become enemies and enemies friends, and each soldier realizes the price and the prize that betrayal offers. |
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ahead Alder Arlette Arlette's arms army asked base ball battle bayonet began body boys breath Breese Brooklyn bullets Burridge Burridge's caught Cawthorne CONFEDERATES Covay Danny dead Del Rio dirt eyes face Feeney felt field fight fingers fire Fredericksburg fucking gonna hand hardtack he'd held Henry home run Huey if'n jacket Jimmy Creighton John Burridge Karl kill knew legs lieutenant looked Louis Lyman took match Micah minié Mink Mink's mouth never Newt Newt's niggers night nodded picket Pindar pitch Pitt play Pompey Prine pulled quickstep Quigley rain Rebel Rebs regiment rifle screaming sergeant shooting shot shoulder side Slipper smiled soldiers Spotsylvania stared Stewart Stives stood stopped strikeout Teddy tell tent thing thought Tice Tiger trees tried turned Union Union army voice waiting walked wanted watched Weed Wesley who'd Willie wondered wound
References to this book
A Clever Base-ballist: The Life and Times of John Montgomery Ward Bryan Di Salvatore No preview available - 2001 |