When This Cruel War Is Over (37 page)

Authors: Thomas Fleming

BOOK: When This Cruel War Is Over

13.86Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

By Thomas Fleming from Tom Doherty Associates

Remember the Morning
The Wages of Fame
Hours of Gladness
Dreams of Glory
When This Cruel War Is Over
Conquerers of the Sky*

*forthcoming

“Gripping.”

âMilitary Images

“Fleming recreates, in precise detail, not only history, but atmosphere. The story he tells is one that will come as a surprise to many Civil War buffs. His research is so thorough, however, that they can believe what they read. Fascinating, high drama, breath-holding suspense, and memorable characters make this an extraordinary novel I would not hesitate to give to anyone.”

âMorgan Llywelyn, international bestselling author of 1916

“Intriguing.”

â
Kirkus Reviews

“The Civil War was America's greatest tragedy, especially in the border states where loyalties were sorely conflicted.
When This Cruel War is Over
vividly portrays the anguish of the war's final months, when Americans on both sides were sick of the bloodshed, and chance could tip the scales toward either victory or defeat.”

âElmer Kelton, author of
The Smiling Country

“Moving and memorable.”

â
Publishers Weekly

“A stunningly powerful novel of love, treachery, and heartrending patriotism.
When This Cruel War is Over
is a classic in the field of fiction.”

âMichael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear, international bestselling authors of
The People Series

“An admirable job of showing the complexities of an era's issues.”

âBooklist

“Fleming's
When This Cruel War is Over
is a heart-wrenching story of love, bravery, and a deep look into the dark soul of terrorism. An intriguing look into one of the secrets of America's past.”

âRandy Lee Eickhoff, bestselling author of
The Fourth Horseman

Afterword

THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN FROM hundreds of pages of notes compiled by a well-known newsman of the nineteenth century, Clay Pendleton. In the late 1880s, Jonathan Stapleton hired Pendleton to go to Keyport and find out what had happened to his younger brother in Kentucky and Indiana in the summer of 1864. These notes were intended to supplement a cryptic letter Paul wrote to Jonathan shortly before he was killed at Nashville. Janet Todd Jameson was especially forthcoming. By the time of Pendleton's visit, she had became a well-known novelist, distinguished by her sympathetic characterizations of black as well as white Americans. She also helped her husband, Adam Jameson, write a best-selling book about his Civil War adventures,
Morgan's Partisan Rangers
. Amelia Gentry, by that time a widow, gave Pendleton access to Henry Gentry's papers, including his letters to and from President Lincoln. Pendleton also tracked down Moses Washington in California, where he and Lucy retired after his service with the U.S. Army.

All the principals required Pendleton to promise that nothing would be published during their lifetimes. The interviews lay in a vault in the Stapletons' New Jersey home, Bowood, until last year, when novelist and historian Thomas Fleming put the material into the form you have just read. He worked under a grant from the Principia Foundation, set up by the late Paul Stapleton (the grandnephew of the protagonist in this tragic story) to
make his descendantsâand other Americansâmore aware of their family's and their country's complex and often conflicted history.

James Kilpatrick,
President
,
Principia Foundation

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER

A Forge Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Forge
^Â®is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

eISBN 9781429973915

First eBook Edition : March 2011

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-048444

First edition: March 2001

First mass market edition: October 2002