2013 Spur Award Finalist:
Best Western Juvenile Fiction
And There I'll Be a Soldier
Johnny D. Boggs recreates the 1862 battles of Shiloh, Tennessee, and Corinth, Mississippi, in his newest critically acclaimed novel. Farm boy Caleb Cole joins the Union's 18th Missouri after being tormented by Confederate partisans. About the same time, down on the Gulf coast, violin-playing Ryan McCalla, from a well-to-do family, enlists in the Confederacy's 2nd Texas with some friends in the spirit of adventure.
Fate will bring the two boys -- and a Corinth teenage girl named Grace Dehner -- together.
Booklist: "Boggs captures the quick terror of combat in harsh scenes that bring to mind The Red Badge of Courage and Ambrose Bierce's 'What I Saw at Shiloh.' Students of the battle will note his flawless research." Historical Novels Review: "... a fascinating story of fictional characters .... The author does an exceptional job telling his story from the viewpoint of each major character."
And There I'll Be a Soldier
tooling design courtsey of
Charles Favour - Santa Fe, NM
"When I taught American literature at the Univ. of Iowa, a colleague taught a 'Great Westerns' course devoted to novels. Vardis Fisher's MOUNTAIN MAN, Alan LeMay's THE SEARCHERS, A.B. Guthrie's THE BIG SKY. Charles Portis's TRUE GRIT. Clearly Westerns can be literature. I suspect that Johnny D. Boggs would be on the syllabus today." -- David Morrell, best-selling author of First Blood and The Brotherhood of the Rose
