Ermal Walden Williamson

This is a fictionalized account of the 8th Texas Cavalry unit, also known as "Terry's Texas Rangers" after Colonel Benjamin Franklin Terry who formed the unit in 1861. They became known as being one of the most effective cavalry units in the western theater. This book tells the story of Matt Jorgensen (presumably fictional), originally from Montana, who fought on the side of the free-staters in Kansas territory, then travelled to Tennessee and worked as foreman on a cotton plantation - falling in love with Jennie, the family's daughter. While in Tennessee, he came in contact with slaves for the first time when he witnessed one of them being whipped and intervened to halt the beating. He followed a man who murdered one of the family's slaves to Texas to exact revenge, and that is where he met Steve, a deputy sheriff who helped him take down the fugitive. Steve invites Matt home to his farm and introduces him to Brenda, his sister and the local school marm. When news of the war reaches them, Steve and Matt head to Huston to join up with a cavalry unit that is forming there.

From this beginning, the story follows the men into training and provides some background about Terry and Thomas Lubbock who worked together to form the unit and sell the idea to President Jefferson Davis, leading to the unit's eventual commission. We then follow the unit as they travel first to New Orleans, then to Kentucky on their way to Virginia to join the war. However, they are detained in Kentucky, awaiting horses and use the time for further training and to entertain the local citizens with wild-west style shows featuring trick riding and fancy shooting.

Meanwhile, Jennie is on her way to Virginia to meet Matt and is shot by a patrol of union soldiers. Taken back to their camp and patched up by the doctor, she develops pneumonia, loses consciousness, and awakes with amnesia not remembering who she is or where she comes from. The doctor, despite being married with a family, begins to fall in love and spends entirely too much time with her - raising eyebrows all around.

The story is good enough. The book, however, is terrible. It is full of inconsistencies and is in great need of a thorough editing. (Despite Jennie having amnesia and not knowing her own name, there is a scene when the union doctor, in the mddle of a conversation about what her name might be, actually calls her "Jennie". In another instance, a detailed chapter about Jennie's experiences was followed by another chapter which summarized those events as if we hadn't just witnessed them.) The language is wooden and repetitive. (If there had been one more reference to a mounted horse as a "steed" I would have thrown something.) The descriptions are awful (e.g., Brenda - the sister - is described as about 5 foot 6 with brown hair and wearing a blue dress; Matt described Jennie as being beautiful and skinny but not too skinny) when they exist at all (no mention of any of the scenery they passed through or of any of the other people they met, except that someone had red hair and several men rolled their cigars around in their lips - eww). On the other hand, there were no less than 4 scenes containing extremely detailed accounts of trick riding - with the same tricks in every single scene (picking a hat off the ground from a galloping horse, picking a scarf off the ground from a galloping horse, picking a dollar coin off the groung from a galloping horse, picking a dime off the ground from a galloping horse). The flow of action is uneven and choppy, and jumps around without warning.

I did a quick internet search on Williamson and discovered that he is an actor and impersonator of both John Wayne and Gary Cooper. A talented man, no doubt. But not a talented writer. There is a sequel to this book - which I assume will follow the men into the war and wrap up the loose ends concerning the 2 women. Needless to say, I won't be seeking it out. Not recommended.… (meer)