In 1814 the fledgling U.S. Army is nothing more than a ragtag collection of veterans and boys, bound by blood, duty, and more than a little luck. The army's commander in chief, Andrew Jackson, has turned his attention from the waning British threat to a conflict closer to home; "Old Hickory" hopes to capture and kill the Creek Indians responsible for murdering American "long hunters" on their home soil.
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY...
Lieutenant Timothy Barlow has just graduated from West point, full of ideals but with no experience. In Indian country, this combination may prove fatal. Barlow is mandated to pillage a peaceful Indian camp along the Tallapoosa. But when his conscience gets the better of him -- and his troops take matters into their own hands -- Barlow has to find a way to obey orders, follow his heart, and survive what history will call the First Seminole War.
2002 by Jason Manning Signet Books (New York) 310 pp ISBN: 0-451-20723-8
I enjoyed taking a break from traditional westerns and mountain man books, and Signet kindly allowed me to do that a few times. This novel started a new trilogy featuring Timothy Barlow, and would take our protagonist from the First Seminole War through the Nullification Crisis and then the Mexican War. I threw a lot of history into this trilogy, and while I try not to preach, Barlow does suffer a crisis of conscience due to the way the United States treated many of the tribes of the Southeast. I especially enjoyed writing about the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, between the Red Sticks and Jackson's forces, which took up the first 60-plus pages.