Our Hunter Jones
Joins the Civil War (Arkansas)

Yes, Hunter Jones is only 12-years-old. And yes, he’s an orphan. But he’s also a fighter and survivor. We go with him as he gets sucked up into the Civil War and carried off to high adventures and exciting escapades. We are with him when he gets shot and captured by soldiers from the newly formed Confederate Army.

In his hospital bed and in a coma Hunter’s close friends two old-timers, Patch and Peg Leg, read to him headlines and stories from the battlefield newspapers. With his vivid imagination and dreams Hunter (and the reader) is carried off to see up close and personal the push and pull of human conflict and the unfolding of a significant slice of American history in the state of Arkansas.

This third book in the Hunter Jones trilogy is all about Arkansas. We are with Hunter at the many battles that took place in Arkansas: Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove, Marks Mills, Poison Springs, Jenkins' Ferry, Devil's Backbone, Chalk Bluff and Ditch Bayou, just to name a few.

We are with him at the capture of strategic ports like Helena, on the Mississippi, and Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas River. We are with him on the White River at Saint Charles and watch with him as the ironclad gunboat USS Mound City's boilers are blown up by the infamous Rebel cannon shot that went through a thirty-inch open porthole.

We are with Hunter as he watches the 17 year-old, David Dodd, be hanged for spying. And we watch as General Lee signs the surrender documents at Appomattox. We watch as officers and soldiers, after the war, flee to Mexico and to Maximilian to regroup.

We are with Hunter at the last battle of the Civil War, the Battle at Palmito Ranch in Texas and we are with Hunter as the last General (Chief Stand Watie) surrenders his troops two months after the surrender at Appomattox.

The TRILOGY...

“Hunter Jones Joins the Civil War (Missouri)” was the first in the trilogy. It dealt with many of the “first” at the start of the Civil War - the first General to die, the first use of instant messaging (telegraph) in a war, the first use of metal hulled ships (ironsides), the first battle Ulysses S. Grant fought (and lost?), plus other first and events in Missouri: The Capture of Camp Jackson, The St. Louis Massacre, The Boonville Races, the rout of the Union forces at Carthage and Wilson's Creek Missouri.

Next in the series was Hunter Jones in (Indian Territory). It explained how the Indians got to Indian Territory and why some fought for the North and why some fought for the South. It also covers some of the battles that happened in the New Mexico Territory, before it became Arizona and New Mexico, including Stanwix Station (AZ) - the western-most battle of the Civil War. And how Texan Confederates planned to go up through the New Mexico Territory and capture the gold mines in Colorado to help pay for the South's war effort.

Even though Hunter Jones and his story are fictional, the sad details, facts, figures and events of the Civil War are historically correct. Reading it, you’ll laugh, cry and be glad as Hunter Jones dodges bullets and cleverly escapes sudden death but, more importantly, you’ll carry away a sense of American History that is still alive today

The Civil War was fought here on Southern soil and not in the fields and towns up north. It’s easy to walk across the road and stand right where a soldier got shot, fell and died. Over 620,000 soldiers did die in that four-year war and not to remember that harrowing event nor honor that sacred soil is sad. Time may cover up the tracks in the sand but it’s up to each generation to remember those who gave up their lives 150 years ago so we can go on with our lives today.