Ride Proud, Rebel!

Ride Proud, Rebel! is a Civil War novel set in the western theater during the final days of the war. As the story opens, the protagonist, Drew Rennie, has been serving as a cavalry scout in Confederate general John Hunt Morgan's command for two years, having left home in 1862 after a final break with his harsh grandfather, who despised him since hi… Ride Proud, Rebel! is a Civil War novel set in the western theater during the final days of the war. As the story opens, the protagonist, Drew Rennie, has been serving as a cavalry scout in Confederate general John Hunt Morgan's command for two years, having left home in 1862 after a final break with his harsh grandfather, who despised him since his birth because of his mother's runaway marriage to a Texan. Already a seasoned veteran at eighteen, during the final year of conflict Drew has the additional responsibility of looking out for his headstrong fifteen-year-old cousin Boyd, who has run away from home to join Morgan's command and has a lot to learn in the school of hard knocks the army provides. The story follows the two of them and a new friend, a Texas trooper named Anson Kirby who provides both common sense and light comic relief, through campaigns in Kentucky, Tennessee and later on deeper into the South, first with Morgan and later under Forrest. It's adventure, but not romanticized adventure. Norton paints a vivid picture of both men's and horses' struggles with exhaustion, hunger, cold, heat and thirst, aside from the horrors of battle. The historical detail is good and left me curious to know more about battles such as Cynthiana, Harrisburg and others mentioned. I read a lot about the Virginia campaigns a few years ago, but the western theater of the war is less familiar to me. On another level, the story also follows the characters' personal development throughout their travels, as Drew wrestles with the conflicting desires to know more about what caused the split in his family years ago, or to shut off all thoughts of the past to avoid being hurt by it. (Elisabeth) About the author: Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 - March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name Andre Norton, but also under Andrew N