The Twisted Trail

By John J. Law

The year was 1865 and the Civil War had just grown to a close. The surrender was on May 9th, 1865. General Lee had surrendered to General Grant, and I had been there to witness it, although I was just one of several hundred onlookers in Appomattox, Virginia, and I was glad the war was finally over.
My name is James Timmons. I fought for the Union. I'm from great state of Kansas, where my family owns a farm in the southeastern part of the state. It had become a state while, I was away fighting in the war.
Now that the war was over, I was planning on returning home, but only for a short visit before continuing west. A sod-buster is the last thing I want to be. I grew up farming and I don't want to waste another day of my life watch plants grow. I was sixteen years old and the War Between the States had broken out, that was 1861. I had heard stories about the war and from what little I knew of history. Just what I'd read in school, I had a romantic infatuation with the idea of being a soldier. I didn't want to be just any soldier though. I wanted to be an important one. That idea, was quickly dispelled, once I enlisted.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.C. Hulsey Books
• Release date: Dec 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223978008

Book preview

Chapter One

The End of the War

The year was 1865 and the Civil War had just grown to a close. The surrender was on May 9th, 1865. General Lee had surrendered to General Grant, and I had been there to witness it, although I was just one of several hundred onlookers in Appomattox, Virginia, and I was glad the war was finally over.

My name is James Timmons. I fought for the Union. I’m from great state of Kansas, where my family owns a farm in the southeastern part of the state. It had become a state while, I was away fighting in the war.

Now that the war was over, I was planning on returning home, but only for a short visit before continuing west. A sod-buster is the last thing I want to be. I grew up farming and I don’t want to waste another day of my life watch plants grow. I was sixteen years old and the War Between the States had broken out, that was 1861. I had heard stories about the war and from what little I knew of history. Just what I’d read in school, I had a romantic infatuation with the idea of being a soldier. I didn’t want to be just any soldier though. I wanted to be an important one. That idea, was quickly dispelled, once I enlisted.

At sixteen, I was a skinny kid with brown hair, and eyes. I couldn’t even grow hair on my face. I stood five foot, eleven inches tall, so I looked tall and lanky. Now here it was five years later and I had grown. I was now six foot two inches tall and had put on a little weight. I was fully filled out at two hundred pounds or so. I wore a short beard and mustache. I had left home a boy and came back a man.

****

I was given an Army issued uniform and munitions the day I enlisted. It was a Springfield single-shot breech loading rifle. It shot lead minie-balls. Later, I bought my own Smith & Wesson Model 2, which was a six-shot revolver with .32 caliber rim-fire cartridges. The revolver was very handy when you were up close to your enemy.

As I soldier, I wasn’t anything special. I started out as a private in the Infantry. We had to walk or march everywhere we went. What I wanted was to be in the Cavalry. I knew how to ride and despite seeking a transfer to the Cavalry, I remained on foot. After all, those history books showed soldiers riding off to war on prancing ponies and I was enamored with being a horse soldier. In reality it was nothing like that.

I remained a private in the infantry until the end of the war. This was the way most of the war was fought. The Cavalry wasn’t used much as the infantry and was a smaller branch of the Union