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 11
... stood Lt. Samuel Bowater, Confederate States Navy. Thirty-five years old, a fifteen-year veteran of the United States Navy, where, after some brief action as an ensign during the Mexican War, he had spent his time visiting foreign ports ...
... stood nearby, watching, his gray frock coat unbuttoned in the warm night, arms folded with mounting impatience. It was by his order that they were there, doing the job they were doing. But it was not the provost's ship. He did not share ...
... iron casement, and Bowater reckoned that his supply of miracles was pretty well played out. And so he stood in the telegraph office and looked for a long time at the words, until he heard the telegraph operator 8 JAMES L. NELSON.
... stood silent and annoyed. “First assistant engineer?” Sullivan said, trying to breathe. “What the hell is that? They let you run the ash hoist, or you gotta be promoted to full junior engineer to do that?” Taylor nodded, worked the ...
... stood quickly, unsure what was happening. His hand reached for his own gun, a .36-caliber Navy Colt, finely engraved, a gift from his father. Before he could even pull the gun the river man started firing, blasting away at the salon's ...
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 |