Thieves of Mercy: A Novel of the Civil War at SeaHaving survived the bloody Battle of New Orleans and the loss of their ironclad Yazoo River, captain Samuel Bowater, engineer Hieronymus Taylor, and the survivors of their crew are given new orders -- take command of an ironclad warship being built in Memphis, Tennessee. Bowater and his men take passage upriver from "Mississippi" Mike Sullivan, one of the wild, undisciplined captains of the River Defense Squadron, only to find, on their arrival, that their ship is not even half built and the enemy is closing fast. Against their better judgment, Bowater and crew join forces with the mercurial Sullivan on board his ad hoc river gunship the General Page. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Confederates once again fling themselves bravely at the overwhelming power of the Yankee invaders. The deadly back-and-forth fight along the Mississippi ends at last in the massive naval battle of Memphis, and the near-suicidal attempt by the Confederates to hold back the Northern flood. Filled with wild characters and heart-pounding action, and set against the bold backdrop of the Civil War, Thieves of Mercy is a worthy successor to the W. Y. Boyd Award-winning novel Glory in the Name, the book Bernard Cornwell lauded as "by far, the best Civil War novel I've read." |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 9
... Yankees were just up the river. The following day there would be a battle, a river battle that would determine whether Memphis would be in Union or Confederate hands. If the Confederates won, and if they could hold the Yankees at bay ...
... Yankees knew it as well, and behind their effort was an almost unlimited industrial capacity. So, for the first year of the war, while the Confederacy struggled to get even one operational ironclad on the Father of Waters, the Union ...
... Yankees control of the entire river, from the headwaters to the delta. “Goddamned Yankees can't have control of the Mississippi. They can't,” the pilot said to Bowater, speaking around a large wad of tobacco and ringing all stop down to ...
... Yankees, most like,” Taylor offered. “Now lookee here, Mr. First Assistant Engineer Hieronymus Taylor, Confederate States Navy, you ain't the only one fightin this here war,” Sullivan said. “Fact is, I am captain of the side- wheel ram ...
... Yankees and had contributed absolutely nothing to the defense of the forts. The only thing they did that Bowater was aware of was to accidentally set their fire rafts alongside Fort Jackson's wharf, blinding the Confederate gunners but ...
Contents
Section 26 | 263 |
Section 27 | 274 |
Section 28 | 283 |
Section 29 | 301 |
Section 30 | 316 |
Section 31 | 323 |
Section 32 | 328 |
Section 33 | 330 |
Section 9 | 74 |
Section 10 | 88 |
Section 11 | 107 |
Section 12 | 116 |
Section 13 | 119 |
Section 14 | 127 |
Section 15 | 131 |
Section 16 | 149 |
Section 17 | 163 |
Section 18 | 178 |
Section 19 | 197 |
Section 20 | 204 |
Section 21 | 214 |
Section 22 | 228 |
Section 23 | 237 |
Section 24 | 248 |
Section 25 | 256 |
Section 34 | 348 |
Section 35 | 355 |
Section 36 | 363 |
Section 37 | 381 |
Section 38 | 386 |
Section 39 | 399 |
Section 40 | 403 |
Section 41 | 408 |
Section 42 | 420 |
Section 43 | 424 |
Section 44 | 438 |
Section 45 | 441 |
Section 46 | 447 |
Section 47 | 452 |
Section 48 | 455 |
Section 49 | 465 |
Other editions - View all
Thieves Of Mercy: a stunning and heart-pounding novel of naval adventure set ... James Nelson No preview available - 2015 |