Outstanding New Historical Novel

The debut novel of my dear friend and crit partner, Lori Benton, will release in August, and her cover has just gone live online. I’ve read and am endorsing Burning Sky, and I want to share the gorgeous, evocative cover with you in case you haven’t already seen it on her blog. 

Burning Sky is set in 1784, following the Revolution, and it’s a must read for anyone who loves historical fiction and historical romance. Lori’s writing is lovely and lyrical, and her grasp of the historical period she’s writing about and her ability to create characters who rise off the page is extraordinary. Burning Sky is available for preorder now. I highly recommend it, and here’s my endorsement.

In Burning Sky, Lori Benton brings to turbulent life the bitter aftermath of the Revolution, when those who fought on opposing sides returned to ravaged homes, soul scarred by horrifying acts they both suffered and committed. Wilhelmina Obenchain, named Burning Sky by the Mohawks who captured her as a child, has lived and lost two lives at war with each other, and twice had her loved ones ripped away. Fleeing sorrow too great to bear, drawn back to the now abandoned home of her childhood, she determines to begin again, heart barricaded against another breaking. With lyrical imagery and finely drawn characters who rise from the page, Burning Sky vividly portrays how God restores the bruised reed and the dimly burning wick and brings new life from the ashes of the past.

The Plight of American Prisoners During the Revolution

“Freedom is a light for which many men have died in darkness.” 

—Memorial for unknown soldiers of the Revolution buried in Philadelphia

HMS Jersey

In Crucible of War, Elizabeth Howard and Dr. Pieter Vander Groot learn about the infamous British prison ships in New York harbor. In Valley of the Shadow, Elizabeth is going to get up close and personal with the conditions aboard these floating prisons, so I thought we’d take a look at the misery American prisoners endured.

For officers, rank had its privileges then as now. Captured officers were generally held under relatively pleasant conditions until they were paroled in exchange for a pledge not to resume participation in the war. The lot of common soldiers who fell into the hands of the British was quite different, however.

Because the British considered the rebels to be traitors, soldiers were not accorded prisoner-of-war status and could be hanged, though the British quickly saw the wisdom of not enforcing that penalty. But without the protection of regulations governing their treatment, American soldiers were imprisoned under conditions hard for us to imagine today. And they usually remained prisoners until the war ended or they died, whichever came first.

The British began using prison ships in 1776, mostly to hold prisoners before transferring them to one of the prisons on shore, but that soon began to change. As many as 32,000 soldiers were confined in New York alone, first in public buildings that had been converted to prisons, and then increasingly aboard one of the derelict hulks anchored in Wallabout Bay along the north shore of Long Island.

The British imprisoned captured soldiers, sailors of American and other nationalities, and private citizens, many of the latter because they refused to swear allegiance to the Crown of England. It’s been estimated that as many as 56 different nationalities were represented, and that more than 11,500 Continental soldiers died during the course of the war. The most notorious, dubbed “Hell” by those who suffered aboard it, was the HMS Jersey. Firsthand accounts describe horrific conditions.

More than a thousand prisoners were held on each ship, confined below decks in dank, dark holds. Although small groups of inmates were usually allowed on deck for brief periods each day, an individual soldier might wait several days for his turn for a glimpse of sunlight, a lungful of fresh air, and a chance to stretch limbs cramped from severely overcrowded conditions. Positions near one of the iron gratings that covered the few available ports, offering slight relief from the unimaginable stench of sweat, refuse, sickness, and rotting corpses, were fiercely guarded.

Starvation was a common cause of death, in addition to sickness. Rations were scarce and usually spoiled. Commissaries of prisoners such as Joshua Loring, Jr., and William Cunningham were brutal men who mistreated their charges and commonly sold off provisions meant for the prisoners in order to line their own pockets. When food did make it to the unfortunate victims, it was barely edible. One common practice was to break up moldy biscuits into a kettle of water so the weevils or maggots that infested them would float to the top where they could be skimmed off before the mixture was boiled. If the prisoners had no fire, which was often the case, they ate their rations raw, including any meat. Some survived by eating garbage. Others bought old shoes, which they cooked and ate.

Inevitably malnutrition led to infections such as typhus, dysentery, and scurvy, which caused bleeding gums, open sores, the loss of teeth, and debilitation. Smallpox, yellow fever and dysentery ran rampant. Cold weather was another ordeal. Lacking fire, warm clothing, and blankets, prisoners froze.

When Washington and Congress learned about the conditions American soldiers were subjected to, they implored the British to exchange prisoners or at least allow them to provide proper food, clothing, and medical care. Family members and friends of the prisoners also petitioned to provide care for their loved ones. But for the most part, their pleas fell on deaf ears, and prisoners continued to suffer and die. This, along with the harsh policies the British enforced where they were in control, increasingly hardened the opposition of American citizens to England.

Over time the death toll aboard the ships became staggering. Each morning the dead would be hauled up on deck. Later in the day the bodies were cast overboard or brought to shore where they were buried in shallow mass graves along Wallabout Bay in Brooklyn. So many remains washed up to litter the shore that residents of Brooklyn were forced to collect the bones for burial. Many of the dead were later interred in the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument at Fort Greene Park.

Colonial Quills Offering Holiday Gift!

Over on the Colonial Quills blog, we’re offering a holiday gift to our readers. Through mid January we have 9 authors contributing to a serial anthology of Christian historical fiction that’s free for our readers! Three of the chapters have already gone live: Carrie Fancett Pagels’s, Susan F. Craft’s and Carla Olson Gade’s contributions.

Click here for the schedule, then follow the links in the schedule to read each part of the serials that have already been posted. There is a giveaway associated with each serial post. Leave a comment on each one to be entered for a book by Laura Frantz, Susan Craft, and/or Carla Olson Gade.

Tomorrow, on Black Friday, we are having a Tea Party on Colonial Quills to celebrate publications by Kelly Long, Dina Sleiman, and Gina Welborn. We will be announcing the giveaways from the first three serials and also giving away 3 books: copies of a book by Kelly Long, Dina’s ebook, and a novella by Gina. We will also have a colonial gift basket for one winner who comes in character! So come on by Friday and join the fun!

New Wind of the Spirit Cover!

We have the new Wind of the Spirit cover! And isn’t it gorgeous? I’m constantly amazed at what a great job Marisa does. She’s one of the people I’m truly thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Since we didn’t have a painting by Don Troiani that worked for this part of the story, I decided to go with a painting titled “The Passage of the Delaware,” by Thomas Sully (1819), that portrays Washington and his army crossing the Delaware River on Christmas night, 1776, on their way to attack the Hessian outpost at Trenton, New Jersey. I hated to give up our Indian for the cover since so much of the story takes place among the Shawnee, but I couldn’t find a painting that was a good substitute for the photo we used on the original edition. However, if you’ve read the story, you know that Wind of the Spirit ends with the army gathering to make the crossing, and Carleton’s vision of God leading them in a pillar of fire and cloud. This image captures the feeling of those final scenes, and, of course, Crucible of War opens with the army reaching the New Jersey shore and preparing for battle, so it ties the two volumes together. And on the back cover of Wind of the Spirit, we’re going to have Don Troiani’s painting of a Shawnee warrior as a stand-in for the Native American thread.

The new, updated Heritage Edition will release in April 2013, and I’m hurrying to make the final updates to the text and the formatting in Quark so it’ll be entirely consistent with the new look of the series. And of course I’ll also update the ebook files in the spring. Lots to do so I can get this off my plate and get back to writing Valley of the Shadow. As always, there’s lots of action and romance coming up for Jonathan and Elizabeth!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, what are you the most thankful for this year? For me, it’s my family and friends. Since I moved back up here to Indiana, I’m really loving having my extended family so close. Last week I went with my aunt and two cousins to the viewing for a cousin who died quite suddenly and unexpectedly. In spite of the circumstances, his family shared a testimony of God’s love and faithfulness through his life. It’s times like this that we’re reminded of how short and fragile life can be, and how everything can turn around on a dime.

I was impressed again by how precious our loved ones are and how we need to hold them close while we’re blessed to have them. I hope and pray that you’re able to gather together with your family next week to share love and joy and laughter and reflect on God’s great goodness to us!

Revisiting Washington's Crossing

Washington Rallying Troops at Princeton, William T. Ranny

In the years following iconic turning points in history, legends often develop that are meant to make a great story “better,” but sometimes obscure the significance of what those involved really accomplished. Today I want to revisit the singular events that breathed new life into the faltering Revolution during the winter of 1776-1777 and subsequently suffered that kind of historical revision.

Two excellent resources I relied on heavily for my portrayal of the battles of Trenton and Princeton are David Hackett Fischer’s Washington’s Crossing and Richard M. Ketchum’s The Winter Soldiers: The Battles for Trenton and Princeton. The picture they present differs from the traditional account, which maintains that the Americans caught the Hessians completely off guard, that because of the storm or simple laxity they had no patrols in place, and that they were still suffering from the effects of drunken Christmas parties when the Americans attacked the morning after Christmas. I’ve heard that often over the years and likely wouldn’t have questioned it if I hadn’t read Fischer and Ketchum, who justly laid it to rest.

Fischer particularly draws a vivid, extensively documented account of the rising of the Jersey militias against the Hessians, who had plundered and abused the inhabitants beyond endurance. By the end of December 1776 the militias’ harassment of the occupying force had become unrelenting. Colonel Rall, who commanded the Hessian garrison at Trenton, repeatedly demanded reinforcements, to the point that Major General James Grant, the British commander in New Jersey, considered him a crybaby. Not only that, but British spies posted at Washington’s headquarters relayed the news that a move was afoot almost as quickly as Washington made the decision to act. The Trenton garrison had every reason to be on high alert, and they were.

These were disciplined, highly professional soldiers, and on the night in question, Fischer states, “Colonel Rall had been thorough in his precautions. German outguards covered every major approach by land into Trenton, and other men were in place along the Delaware River. Behind the outposts were duty companies that could offer support. In the center of town, one Hessian regiment was always on alert in ‘alarm houses,’ and the others were ready to muster quickly” (Washington’s Crossing, p. 235). In fact, many of the soldiers had taken to retiring in their uniforms at night with weapons in hand because they were awakened so often by alarms.

Another oft-cited myth is that the Hessian soldiers were drunk after an excess of Christmas partying. Washington and his officers hoped that would be the case, but the reality was far different. Fischer states that “The German responses to the American attack were not those of intoxicated revelers.” He cites Boston fifer John Greenwood, who later wrote in his memoir: “I am willing to go upon oath, that I did not see even a solitary drunken soldier belonging to the enemy” (pp. 239-240).

General George Washington at Trenton, John Trumbull

It’s true that Rall had to be roused from his bed when the attack began because he had been up late at a party the night before, but that made little difference in the course of the battle. The Hessian commander knew that his seasoned troops would respond instantly to any attack, and they justified his confidence. The confusion that led to their ultimate defeat arose from the fact that they didn’t expect an attack by Washington’s full army through a storm that was by all accounts stupendous (who would?). At first the outposts assumed that the enemy force they dimly made out through waves of sleet, snow, rain, and hail was a small militia force like those that had been making their lives miserable for days. The delay in realizing what they were really up against and the violence of the storm caused their disarray. However, it was the brilliance of Washington’s battle strategy and tactics and the astounding fortitude of his men in the face of incredible obstacles and hardship that carried the day.

In spite of their initial confusion, the Hessians rallied to put up stout resistance, and Fischer gives a very affecting account of the true number of American casualties that resulted directly from the battle. The regiments Rall personally commanded fought their way to an apple orchard on the outskirts of town, only to be driven back into the town, where Rall was mortally wounded. Deprived of their commander and with the Americans rapidly gaining the upper hand, the remnants of Rall’s shattered regiments muscled their way back to the apple orchard in another effort to break through to the British garrison at Princeton, before they were finally surrounded and forced to surrender. On the other end of town, a Hessian detachment held the stone bridge over Assunpink Creek for most of the battle. It was via that route that between 400 and 500 Hessian soldiers and a few civilians escaped before the Americans finally captured the bridge.

What Washington’s ragged, poorly equipped, and ill-trained army accomplished in defeating an alert and formidable enemy by attacking through a raging nor’easter is a testimony to their tenacity and commitment to the Glorious Cause of liberty. The accurate account of what really happened makes it all that much more heroic. That they followed it up by returning over the frozen Delaware only to recross it a few days later to fight a second battle at Trenton against a formidable British force before attacking Princeton is truly astounding.