Several years ago, I learned that Robert Morgan was writing a biography of Daniel Boone, and I quickly proposed that the Jesse Stuart Foundation publish this book. Unfortunately for the JSF, he already had a contract with Algonquin. Adding Robert Morgan to our list of authors would have been a great coup, for he is, in my opinion, one of America’s most talented writers.

Morgan was raised on his family’s farm in the mountains of North Carolina and is currently teaching at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His eight books of fiction include "Gap Creek," an Oprah Book Club selection and "Brave Enemies," a novel of the American Revolution.

Josie Summers, the central character in "Brave Enemies," is a teenage girl living on the Carolina frontier. After she is raped by her stepfather and shunned by her mentally-ill mother, Josie kills her rapist with an ax and then, dressed in men’s clothes, flees into the wilderness.

She is befriended by John Trethman, a young, itinerant minister who does not know her background or gender. Later, John discovers that "Joseph" is Josie and they fall in love and marry.

The Carolina backwoods is filled with violence between redcoats and rebels and one evening John is arrested by the British army for being a rebel spy—a false accusation. John convinces the British that he is nothing more than a "simple preacher and psalmodist," but he is forced to serve as a minister in the service of the British army under the command of Banastre Tarleton.

Josie, in search of her husband, re-assumes her disguise as a man, and joins the backwoods militia under the command of General Daniel Morgan who declared, "I’m going to beat Benny Tarleton on this ground or I’m going to lay down my bones here." Morgan looked into the hearts and apprehensive faces of a determined colonial militia and told them, "Your grandchildren, and their grandchildren, will remember this place and what you did here. Our country has been ravaged long enough. Our homes have been plundered and our mothers and sisters have been raped. Some have had their tongues scraped and some have been shamed in other ways. Our fields and stores have been wasted and our brothers have died on English bayonets and sabers, even while trying to surrender. We have to fight and we have to win. If we lose we will all be hanged."

The dramatic conclusion comes at Cowpens, one of the major battles of the American War for Independence.

Readers will find themselves caught up by the smoke, blood, chaos, and injustice of war. Some will thrill to the ever increasing pace of the fight for independence, while others will anxiously read to see if Josie and John are reunited. Everyone who reads this book will know that Morgan is a master storyteller with an incredible sense of time and place.

A great revolutionary war scholar, Joseph J. Ellis, concludes that "Morgan provides the finest fictional recreation of the horrific war in the Southern theatre...that I have ever read. His version of the Battle of Cowpens is a tour de force."

"Brave Enemies" is available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation Bookstore, 1645 Winchester Avenue in downtown Ashland. For more information, call (606) 326-1667 or visit our website: JSFBOOKS.COM

REGIONAL READERS

The Regional Readers will meet to discuss "Brave Enemies" on Tuesday evening February 28th at 5:45 p.m. in the JSF Conference Room.