Diane Holloway

Interrupted Lives: Hood's Texas Brigade Diane Holloway

Hoods Texas Brigade was one of the most distinguished fighting units in Lees Army of Northern Virginia, participating in virtually all of the major battles and campaigns from Elthams Landing through Appomattox. This book, although a work of fiction, is faithful to the movements of the brigade, including its detachment to Braggs command and the resultant battle at Chickamauga. Prominent in the book are Hood, Lee, Longstreet, and Stonewall Jackson, as well as many lesser but real personalities. The book is basically about Caleb Walker, a Texas farm boy who enlists after First Manassas and remains with the Texas Brigade throughout the war. It includes Calebs companions, most of whom will be killed or wounded; the ribald humor of enlisted men; Calebs letter exchanges with his girlfriend; homosexual advances; non-combat related murder; the life, leisure and horror of the common soldier; and the leadership, sometimes inept, often inspiring, of non-coms and officers. Each chapter opens with an account in the Dallas Spectator of the wars progress and problems in all theaters of the war, and the home front, and illustrates the typical Southern editors willingness to criticize as well as praise, without fear of retribution.