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
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... fire . Bowater heard the limping gate of Hieronymus Taylor as the chief engineer stepped up beside him . " Well , goddamn me , Cap'n , " Taylor said around his cigar , his accent thick New Or- leans . " There goes your third ship . " He ...
... turned earth scattered over the high bluffs. Artillery positions set up to command the river below. Confederate gunners could set up a plunging fire that even ironclads would have a hard time surviving . If 10 JAMES L. NELSON.
... fire rafts alongside Fort Jackson's wharf , blinding the Confederate gunners but neatly illuminating the fort for the Yankees . That was what the War Department got for the one million five hundred thousand dollars they spent ...
... fire tubes. Three. And when they's gone, god- damned if I know where we'll get more,” Guthrie was saying. He turned to the fireman. “Come on now, get that damper open, all the way! She'll take three more pounds of pressure or I ain't ...
... fire. “On them big ships, maybe, but I don't get bothered much. Old man don't know enough engineering to stick his nose in.” By “old man,” Taylor meant Bowater, who was six years his junior. “Well, you know Sullivan, he can't keep his ...
Contents
Section 26 | 256 |
Section 27 | 263 |
Section 28 | 274 |
Section 29 | 283 |
Section 30 | 301 |
Section 31 | 316 |
Section 32 | 323 |
Section 33 | 328 |
Section 9 | 88 |
Section 10 | 107 |
Section 11 | 116 |
Section 12 | 119 |
Section 13 | 127 |
Section 14 | 131 |
Section 15 | 149 |
Section 16 | 159 |
Section 17 | 163 |
Section 18 | 178 |
Section 19 | 184 |
Section 20 | 197 |
Section 21 | 204 |
Section 22 | 214 |
Section 23 | 228 |
Section 24 | 237 |
Section 25 | 248 |
Section 34 | 330 |
Section 35 | 348 |
Section 36 | 355 |
Section 37 | 363 |
Section 38 | 381 |
Section 39 | 386 |
Section 40 | 399 |
Section 41 | 408 |
Section 42 | 420 |
Section 43 | 424 |
Section 44 | 438 |
Section 45 | 441 |
Section 46 | 447 |
Section 47 | 452 |
Section 48 | 465 |
Other editions - View all
Thieves Of Mercy: a stunning and heart-pounding novel of naval adventure set ... James Nelson No preview available - 2015 |