Rebekah Colburn
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • NEW RELEASE
  • The Time Returns
  • All Books
  • Blog
  • FAQs
  • Contact Me

Coming Soon: FOR THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM (Book 2, My Brother's Flag)

2/26/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

Guess what? I finished the rough draft of FOR THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM! I think it's safe to say that it should be available by April, just in time to celebrate spring!

FOR THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM
(BOOK 2, MY BROTHER'S FLAG)

On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the division of the Civil War is an inescapable reality for many households. For the Turner brothers, it means choosing politics over blood. At the outbreak of the war, Charlie enlisted in the Confederate Army to defend States Rights while his older brother, Jeremiah, chose to fight for the Union.

Three years later, an emaciated prisoner of war, Charlie is determined to escape Point Lookout Prison and make his way home to face the conflict awaiting him there.

When Abigail Sterret discovers a wounded man near her home, she is moved by compassion at the sight of the gaunt Rebel soldier. Risking the consequences of aiding the enemy, Abigail shelters Charlie at Bloomingdale and nurtures him back to health. As his wounds heal, she discovers that Charlie carries more secrets than she supposed, and Abigail is more involved than she presumed.

And though war may end with the sweep of a pen, peace comes far less easily.

0 Comments

Did Lincoln Dream of His Own Death?

2/16/2016

16 Comments

 
Picture
As the story goes, and it has been disputed, Abraham Lincoln had a dream predicting his own death by an assassin.

Following is reported to be an account which he shared with his wife just days before he was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth.

"About ten days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was very weary. I soon began to dream.
There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. I saw light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break?

I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully.

'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers, 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin.' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me from my dream. I slept
no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since."

Picture
On April 14th, 1865, while watching a play at Ford's Theatre, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He was shot in the back of the head, and died the following morning. On Tuesday morning, April 18, 1865, soldiers opened the White House gates to receive an immense crowd stretching for blocks in downtown Washington. From 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. the shocked and grieving public filed past President Lincoln's open coffin in the East Room, in the first official mourning event after his assassination. Newspaper reporters estimated the number of visitors at 20,000 to 30,000 or more. So many had to be turned away that officials scheduled another public viewing at the Capitol two days later.
Picture
16 Comments

The Prentiss Brothers: A True Story of Division and Reconciliation

2/3/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Major Clifton Kennedy Prentiss, 6th MD, USA
In my historical fiction series, MY BROTHER'S FLAG, I imagined how the Civil War might have played out for a family on Maryland's Eastern Shore. There are many true stories of brothers joining opposing sides in the war, and recently I stumbled upon the tale of the Prentiss brothers, which I thought I would share with you.

The brothers, Clifton and William, were born near Baltimore, Maryland. When the war broke out, Clifton enlisted in the Union Army and rose through the ranks to major. William enlisted in the First Maryland Infantry of the Confederate States in spring of 1862.

Although Clifton and William were present at more than one battlefield, camped just over the hill from one another, they did not meet again until April 2, 1865. The Union and the Confederate armies had been stalemated at Petersburg, Virginia for almost ten months when General Grant ordered a full assault to break the Rebel lines.

Major Clifton Prentiss led the 6th Maryland as they attacked the Rebels and was reported to be the first officer to enter the enemy's defensive works. Almost immediately, he was shot in the chest.
William, defending the Confederate trenches against his brother's regiment, was struck by a shell fragment above his right knee.  

An account given in 1920 by J.R. King in the National Tribune recorded this "pathetic incident":

"Two of the 6th Md. men like many others were going over the field ministering to the wounded without regard to the uniform they wore, came upon a wounded Confederate, who after receiving some water, asked if the 6th Md. was any way near there. The reply was, "We belong to that regiment. Why do you ask?" The Confederate replied that he had a brother in that regiment. "Who is he?" he was asked. The Confederate said, "Captain Clifton K. Prentiss." Our boys said, "Yes, he is our Major now and is lying over yonder wounded." The Confederate said, "I would like to see him." Word was at once carried to Maj. Prentiss. He declined to see him saying, "I want to see no man who fired on my country's flag."

Colonel Hill, after giving directions to have the wounded Confederate brought over, knelt down beside the Major and pleaded with him to see his brother. When the wayward brother was laid beside him our Major for a moment glared at him. The Confederate brother smiled; that was the one touch of nature; out went both hands and with tears streaming down their cheeks these two brothers, who had met on many bloody fields on opposite sides for three years, were once more brought together."

William died at the Armory Square Hospital on June 24, 1865, and his remains were interred at Green-Wood Cemetery. Clifton, holding out hope for his recuperation, returned home. But he died there on August 18, less than two months after his brother succumbed.

Clifton was buried next to his brother William, and they have lain side by side for more than a century at Green-Wood.
Picture
0 Comments

    Rebekah Colburn

                   Novelist
    Historical Fiction/ Romance 

    Picture

    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly