Prophet's Way: A Civil War Historical Fantasy

By Perry L. Angle

Prophet's Way is a historical fantasy about a decimated Civil War unit which garrisons a hidden river edge redoubt. A replacement arrives who claims to have been sent by God. The story highlights the Confederate sergeant who with the urging of the prophet will consider a political career.

It is the story of the deep reverence of the southern people for the land and is told with humility and understanding. Young Joshua personifies the heroic southern soldier who is trying to rationalize duty with scripture.

Prophet under a flag of truce revels to both the blue and gray alike the inevitable horrors to follow from the formation of a Union. There in the moonlit meadow, Sgt. Yancey Young realizes that he has been called to be a prophet to his people and help guide them through reconstruction.

He will come to realize that he fights an enemy unlike any he has faced before--a foe more resilient, more tenacious, even more perplexing than he can imagine: a demeaning, ravenous monster named PROGRESS.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 19, 2008
• ISBN: 9780595630219

Perry L. Angle

Perry L. Angle was a successful salesman, manager and stockbroker. He received his MBA from Auburn University. As an avid outdoorsman, he writes of his beloved South with humility and respect. The author of The Butterfly Transport and Prophet's Way is an accomplished champion of individual values. His unusual reflection of man in his existential response to stress is noteworthy. The author achieves a delicate balance in his use of science, philosophy and religion as he weaves portraits of man as he becomes despondent with each revelation of the difficulty of existence in a tumulteous world. Some readers will find truths explored that are applicable to their own situations

Book preview

Prophet’s Way

A Civil War Historical Fantasy

By

Perry L. Angle

iUniverse, Inc.

New York Bloomington

Prophet’s Way

A Civil War Historical Fantasy

Copyright © 2008 by Perry L. Angle

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

All commentary simply reflects a fictionalized fantasy of a Civil War unit. Everything written is intended to reflect only opinion as it might have been expressed in a combat setting of the period.

References to actual events, persons or units may not be entirely factual and are for convenience of the narrative or accidental.

The fantasy in the backdrop of a battle serves only to illustrate that time is often indistinct and that the Civil War did produce positive movements in politics and literature.

Any opinion expressed may have historical basis but is intended to be only the construct of the author used for creation of a fictional work of historical fantasy.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-0-595-52968-1 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-595-63021-9 (ebk)

The author appreciates the assistance of his wife in proofreading of the text and for her suggestions as to characterization detail.

Cover design by Thomas Craig Angle

Cover photos by Brian Lanier Angle

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev1. 11/14/2008

Contents

About The Cover

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter One

1838-1861

Yancey’s Birth

Chapter Two

Conversation With Dad

Chapter Three

Secession

Chapter Four

Camp Halls Mill:

Mobile, Alabama 1861

Chapter Five

Engagements

Chapter Six

The Arrival of Josuha and the Prophet

Chapter Seven

Conversation with Prophet (1)

Chapter Eight

Joshua Joins UP

Chapter Nine

Conversation with Joshua and Prophet

Chapter Ten

The Volunteers

Chapter Eleven

Heroism Of Josuha

Chapter Twelve

Second Conversation With Prophet

Chapter Thirteen

Moonlit Sermon

Chapter Fourteen

Frank’s Letter From Home

Chapter Fifteen

Yancey’s Vision

Chapter Sixteen

Retreat

Chapter Seventeen

Yancey’s Homecoming

Chapter Eighteen

Conversation Between Beazel And Yancey

Chapter Nineteen

Conversation With Rose

Chapter Twenty

Parson’s Visit And Prophet’s Letter

Chapter Twenty-One

Yancey Takes A Wife

Chapter Twenty-Two

Yancey’s Speech

Chapter Twenty-Three

Onward

Epilogue

Notes And Refereences

Books By Perry L. Angle

About The Cover

In 1973, a friend invited Perry L. Angle to the Manresa Catholic Retreat House in Louisiana. The attendees each took a vow of silence for the duration of their stay in the hope that it would then be easier to hear God speak to them. While the Catholics were making the Stations of the Cross, Perry (a Protestant) took a fateful walk down to the river. As he looked out into the swift current, something caught his eye. A strange object was floating a distance from shore. Without thinking, Perry dove into the mighty Mississippi River and swam out to retrieve the mask.

The odd shaped cypress knee appeared to be an object carved by the force of nature itself. Peering into this unique driftwood, he was captivated by what he saw. A face with a contorted grin which seemed almost satanic in origin lay in his hands. Instead of hearing the voice of God, he had recovered the face of Satan.

Perry is an anachronistic, true southerner with his own set of ideals. He is a man longing for the past, a man resistant to change. As Prophet points out in this novel, like Yancey, Perry is a man who distrusts progress.

The mask rests upon a bed of flowers. These blooms are from the Confederate Rose which is much admired by southerners. Not truly a rose it nevertheless serves as a southern symbol. Prophet’s Way is a love story on several fronts but the most important theme is the love of the Confederate for his homeland and no representation of evil could ever diminish that love or cause.

Against the backdrop of the Confederate Rose, the devil mask is not as frightful.

BRIAN LANIER ANGLE

(based upon comments of his father).

Dedication

To

GINNY

My own exceptional Confederate Rose

Introduction

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Prophet’s Way is a mixture of history, fiction and fantasy. In deciding to write this story, I wanted to sidestep the Lost Cause Issue and not get mired in an expose of why the South was right to fight for independence but to show that in the emergence from the ashes of defeat the South did rise to prominence in both politics and literature.

I decided to use the backdrop of an actual battle and the landscape of an area that I have hunted and fished around since I was a boy. In a sense, this is a love story on several fronts, the love for two men for a single woman, the love of a man for his friend whom he regards as a brother and the greatest love of all, the love of a man for his homeland. The Civil War did not extinguish that love. No, it grew stronger than ever. The South is like an annual which comes back regardless of drought or frost seemingly indestructible in its pervasiveness.

I am proud to be a son of the South. My great, great, Grandfather rode with Gen. Forrest in Georgia. Recently, I had the honor of being involved in the burial of the last Confederate soldier whose remains were recovered from the CSS Alabama in the waters off the coast of France. My contribution was only to be a pallbearer for the soldier from the small Admiral Semmes Home to the waiting hearse, yet it had a profound effect upon me. Although my role was minor, I was honored.

Other pallbearers actually accompanied the casket on a two mile trek in the stifling heat to the cemetery and were magnificent in their attitude and bearing. I salute every man who was involved in that solemn, dignified and most honorable service and am also proud of my son and his children ages five and six who walked a part of that distance to the gravesite.

Prophet offers glimpses into the future. He offers revelations that are startling, inconceivable even fanciful to the men in gray. And at that time they should have been suspicious and alarmed but now the unthinkable has happened and Prophet’s musings suggest to us that the past, present and future are often indistinct.

His way is not complicated but requires dedication and slow but constant effort. Yet, given a choice between Prophet’s Way of wearing down opposition by goal-oriented progression in politics and the arts or the rampaging, maverick ways of newly formed lawless groups, Yancey will choose and his choice will reflect the quiet, courageous, deliberate, self-reliant traits of the southern man that William Faulkner alluded to in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Prophet’s Way reminds us that for the true southerner the land he loves is a kind of Eden worth every effort to preserve and the war even as horrid and bitter as it was did give us a chance to reflect upon a proper course with the goal of retaining as much of southern charm and character as was possible. That course is still a work in progress but it appears that though faint we may yet have reason to hope.

Chapter One

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1838-1861

Yancey’s Birth

On a cold, winter evening in 1838, Marie Young, gave birth to a baby boy. His father wrapped him in blankets and walked out onto his front porch. He pointed to the constellation Orion and said:

This is my favorite constellation. When you are older, I will teach you to