Book description
After four years of bitter struggles and immeasurable cost in human
lives and property, the armies laid down their weapons and the country
was reunited. But there was a magnitude of problems emerging from the
rebellious and war-torn South and the now-freed slaves. The freed
slaves, excited about their liberation, were led to believe that they
would receive “forty acres of land and a mule,” but this didn't happen.
The politicians felt that freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote
was enough for them. True equality was never pondered, and these people,
emerging from servitude, were met with apathy and resentment. Who would
represent these people, and who would mend the bitter feelings and
destruction left by the war? John Wilson, who first appeared in the
author's “Hillcountry Warriors” which was acclaimed as “an above-par
work of period fiction” by “Publishers Weekly,” was such a man. Wilson
had fought for the Confederacy and upon returning to his home in
Mississippi, felt there was room for all races. In essence, he was a man
beyond his time. As long as Federal troops were stationed in the South,
some order existed, but when they were removed in 1876, an internal
struggle for power erupted. As time passed, Wilson was eventually
appointed a district judgeship and he felt that he could make his dream
of justice for all a reality. This is his story, and the story of many
who labored to mend the bitter feelings and destruction left by the
Civil War. JOHNNY NEIL SMITH, author of the critically acclaimed
“Hillcountry Warriors” of which “Unconquered” is the sequel, is now a
retired educator and has always had a deep interest in early American
history. Since four of his great grandfathers served in the Confederate
Army, he is fascinated with the American Civil War and has spent years
of research on the subject.
