Synopses & Reviews
Albert Richardson and Junius Browne, two correspondents for the New York Tribune, were captured at the Battle of Vicksburg and spent twenty months in horrific Confederate prisons before escaping and making their way to Union territory. Their amazing, long-forgotten odyssey is one of the great escape stories in American history, packed with drama, courage, horrors and heroics, plus many moments of antic comedy. They must endure the Confederacy's most notorious prison; rely on forged passes and the secret signals of a covert pro-Union organization in North Carolina; trust a legendary guerilla leader; be hidden by slaves during the day in plantation slave quarters; and ultimately depend on a mysterious, anonymous woman on a white horse to guide them to safety. They traveled for 340 miles, most of it on foot, much of it through snow, in twenty-six days.
This is a marvelous, surreal voyage through the cold mountains, dark prisons, and mysterious bands of misfits living in the shadows of the Civil War.
Review
“Modern journalists scrambling to file before deadline have nothing on Junius Browne and Albert Richardson. . . . Civil War buffs and historians of journalism will revel in this thrilling tale of two raucous, self-described ‘knights of the quill.”
—Publishers Weekly Kirkus Reviews
Review
“Possesses the juiciness of a beach read. . . . Carlson works with wonderful efficiency, describing the political and social environment both men faced but never losing sight of the story and its momentum.”
—BookPage Jen - ' - s Book Thoughts
Review
“A rollicking story of imprisonment and escape. . . . Carlson has taken full advantage of abundant material to deliver a vivid chronicle of two working Civil War reporters and their spectacular odyssey.”
—Kirkus Review The Washington Post
Review
“I found the factoids that pepper the story to be as fascinating as the overall story of Junius and Albert. . . . Campbell never minimizes these little gems in his narration. They may only be a sentence or a phrase of mention, but Campbells awareness of them helps to leave a lasting impression on the listener.”
—Jens Book Thoughts The Boston Globe
Review
“Unspools like a buddy flick. . . . Carlsons story has so many twists, right up to the last page.”
—Washington Post American History
Review
“Plenty of nonfiction narratives claim to read like novels; this one actually does.”
—Boston Globe BookPage
Review
“Thoroughly entertaining.”
—American History AudioFile
Review
“Carlson works with wonderful efficiency, describing the political and social environment. . . . Compact and vivid as readers are escorted to the hell both men endured.”
—BookPage
Review
“Narrator Danny Campbells affability and expressiveness engage the listener in the story, which he moves through with perfect pacing.”
—AudioFile
Synopsis
The thrilling true story of a pair of reporters swept up in the Civil War, captured, and thrown into jail, and their attempt to escape and return home to file their own extraordinary story.
About the Author
PETER CARLSON is the author of K Blows Top, which was optioned into a feature film released in 2013 by HBO. For many years, he was a reporter and columnist for the Washington Post. He has also written for Smithsonian magazine, History Today, and the Huffington Post. He lives in Bethesda, MD.
DANNY CAMPBELL has recorded scores of audiobooks. He has won Earphones awards for both fiction and non fiction titles. He is a founding company member of The Independent Shakespeare Company in Los Angeles, where he has appeared as Bottom in A Midsummer Night¹s Dream, Falstaff in Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV (Part 1 and Part 2), Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, Banquo and the Porter in MacBeth, and in other plays.