“Set primarily on the high plains during the 1860s, this novel has the epic sweep of the frontier built into it.”—Publishers Weekly Jonah Hook fought for the Confederacy at Pea Ridge and Corinth, where he was wounded, captured, and sent to the prison hellhole they called Rock Island. The only way out for the young Reb was to don a blue uniform and serve on the western frontier as a “galvanized Yankee.” Along the North Platte, Tongue, and Powder rivers, Jonah Hook fights side by side with a buckskinned scout named Shadrach Sweete. When he returns to his Missouri farm, he finds an empty house and overgrown land. Now it will take all the knowledge and hard cunning he acquired on the frontier to rescue his family from the brutal men who kidnapped them. Finding them will be the journey of a lifetime.
The eagerly-awaited sequel to Carry The Wind, this is the second volume of Terry Johnston's award-winning saga of mountain men Josiah Paddock and Titus Bass, who here meet new challenges and new loves in the western wilderness of the 1830's.
In the first volume of this saga of George Custer, the infamous general takes a lover among the Indians captured in his long winter campaign against the Cheyenne, risking marriage, reputation, and career for her.
A young man on the run from his past happens upon an old mountain man, and together they survive the Blackfeet and the Crow, bible-spouting pioneers, and sensuous women.
Crack in the Sky continues the development of the young Titus Bass as he gradually learns the lore of the mountain man. From a raucous rendezvous of trappers to a searing fight with Comanche, from a frigid winter's chill to the angry heat of a chase with horse thieves, Titus Bass's West comes alive in the pages of this remarkable novel--and in its final scene, Titus Bass will meet young Josiah Paddock and form the deep friendship explored in the pagers of Carry the Wind.
In Buffalo Palace, the young Titus Bass sights, and then sets out into, the vast Rocky Mountain country, where he has his initial experiences with trapping beaver, surviving the freezing winter, fighting fierce Indians and even fiercer fellow mountain men, and celebrating at the hard-earned summer rendezvous. Most memorably, we walk with Titus as he first sees the immense herd which originally fueled his wanderlust, and now feeds, clothes and houses the frontier's pioneers, when he reaches the country lovingly called the "Buffalo Palace.
The saga of frontier mountain man Titus Bass was first chronicled by author Terry C. Johnston in the bestselling trilogy Carry the Wind, Borderlords, and One-Eyed Dream. In Dance on the Wind, Buffalo Palace, and Crack in the Sky, Johnston set down the stirring adventures of Bass's early life. Now the unforgettable epic concludes with the story of this legendary hero's autumn years that was begun in Ride the Moon Down and Death Rattle. In this breathtaking climax, Bass, the hardy survivor of a world now gone, prepares to fight his magnificent final battle. Fleeing the bloody aftermath of the Taos Rebellion, Titus Bass leads his family north, hoping to winter with the Crow people. But wagons filled with overland emigrants in search of new homes have already begun to trek across the vast untamed frontier. The wild and free world of the mountain men is quickly fading into the past. Even the famous Jim Bridger, whose trading post sits on the emigrants' Oregon Trail, must contend with arriving Mormons under Brigham Young, who view the region as their Promised Land to be cleansed of all nonbelievers. For Titus Bass, the journey north is sadly eventful. He must save an old friend from death and rescue his daughter Magpie from cutthroat traders. He must find a way to free a wagon train of innocents from its unscrupulous leader, his murderous assistant, and the band of violent toughs who enforce the leader's will. Most important of all, Bass must come to terms with his long-lost daughter Amanda, bound with her husband and children for a new home ... in a faraway land that Bass himself will never see. When Bass eventually arrives in the land of the Crow, he finds old friends -- and old ways -- dying out. Determined to live out his final years in peace, Bass soon comes to realize that even on the changing frontier, enemies lie in wait, old dangers lurk, and survival is never a certain thing. But still to come is the greatest lesson of all -- that dearer by far than his own life are the lives of his friends and loved ones.
“Terry Johnston is an authentic American treasure.”—Loren D. Estleman, author of Edsel It was a day that shocked a nation. June 25, 1876. The day General George Armstrong Custer fell at Little Big Horn. Now the U.S. Army is on the march. Vowing revenge, its commanders have declared total war on the Cheyenne and Sioux. Every able-bodied man must answer the call of the cavalry trumpet . . . men such as frontiersman Buffalo Bill Cody and scout Seamus Donegan. From the Black Hills to Slim Buttes, from Yellowstone to Warbonnet Creek, some would succumb to ambush, some to starvation, others to disease and even madness. Under the blood-red sun of that terrible summer, Seamus Donegan prays only to survive . . . to return to his wife, Samantha, and witness the birth of their first child.
The time of the mountain man is coming to an end, but some—like Titus Bass will not exit gently. A brilliantly exciting and thoroughly researched novel of the end of the dream that was the unmapped and virgin wilderness in the American West starring the king of the mountain men, Titus Bass. A new dawn was rising over the vast, once uncharted territories west of the Mississippi. And for the original trailblazers like Titus Bass—bold, resourceful men who dine on buffalo meat, trade in beaver pelts, and live among the warrior bands—the world will never be the same. Traveling with his wife and infant daughter, Bass heads north into Crow territory. But what should have been a joyous reunion with his wife’s people turns to tragedy when Bass’s family is kidnapped by the warring Blackfoot. A deadly outbreak of smallpox, brought west by the white man, threatens both Indian nations with annihilation. And another kind of epidemic—this one of greed—brought by two powerful, profit-hungry trading outfits will determine the fate not only of free trappers like Titus Bass . . . but the destiny of the entire nation. Praise for Terry C. Johnston “No one does it better . . . one of the great frontier historical novelists of our generation.”—Tulsa World “Terry C. Johnston is an authentic American treasure.”—Loren D. Estleman
Sixteen-year-old Titus Bass fears one fate more than any other: never to experience the great wilderness or the wildness inside himself. So late one night he snatches a squirrel gun and a handful of biscuits, flees into the woods, and doesn’t look back. From Louisville past the Chickasaw bluffs and the Natchez Trace all the way to New Orleans, he plunges into the rough-and-tumble life along the banks of the Mississippi: a volatile, violent country of boatmen and river bandits, knife fights and Indian raids, strong liquor and stronger women. Yet beyond the great river stretches the vast, unexplored expanse of the Great Plains. And it is here that young Titus will seek his future, and risk everything to seize it.
With the end of the beaver trade at hand, free trappers like Titus Bass must somehow make their way on a changing frontier. Drawn by the promise of adventure and wealth, Bass joins an expedition to Spanish California, where the ranchos have horses and mules in abundance. Their plan is to steal the livestock and drive it back east across the great Mojave Desert to sell to fur traders for top dollar. But pursuit by formidable Mexican soldiers and an attack by fierce Digger Indians take their toll on Bass and his fellow raiders. Arriving back in the Rockies, the mountain man discovers that even the famous Jim Bridger has abandoned trapping and settled down to trade with overland immigrants plying the Oregon Trail. Wondering where his own trail will lead him, Bass journeys south for a reunion with an old friend in Taos-only to be caught up in the "Taos Rebellion." And in its tragic aftermath, Titus finds himself once again an outsider in a world he no longer recognizes.
“This account of battle on the plains brings the period to life.”—Publishers Weekly Spring, 1876. The war cry has sounded. The Sioux and the Cheyenne are massing along the northern frontier. And even while his wife awaits the birth of their child, army scount Seamus Donegan knows he must head north to Fort Fetterman. Brigadier General George C. Crook is preparing to meet the fierce challenge laid down by the bold and brutal chief Crazy Horse, and the future hope of the nation rests in the strong hands and courageous hearts of men like Seamus Donegan. He yearns for a reunion with his wife, but the trail of that fateful campaign leads Donegan ever farther from home—toward the land of the Rosebud and a hard rain of blood and tears.
Blood Song Terry C. Johnston Frontier Scout Seamus Donegan is heading for Montana Territory with his new bride when war erupts in the Black Hills of Dakota. Sitting bull and Crazy horse have defied the federal Government and refused to lead the wild tribes of the Northern Plains onto the reservation, and Washington decides to end the Indian problem once and for all. Donegan joins us with General George Cook who is leading the 2nd and 3rd Cavalry and a rough-and-tumble band of scouts and interpreters into the bloody battle. For Seamus Donegan and the men on the front lines, the long fight in the bitter cold of winter will be one of loneliness and fear--a struggle for survival that will not end, even with the swift and successful assault one the enemy stronghold. For in the ashes on the snow, in the fury of defeated warriors, the seeds are sown for a new and even bloodier chapter in the Indian Wars.
Custer confronts his destiny at Little Big Horn and his legend lives on through his Cheyenne son. Never one to proceed cautiously when an impetuous move could win him glory, Custer marched his famed Seventh Calvary against the Sioux in June 1876. He was thirty-six, already a mythic hero to some, with the possibility of a presidential nomination looming in his future; while to others he was an arrogant and dangerous fool, misguided in his determination to subjugate the Plains tribes. What should have been his greatest triumph became an utterly devastating defeat that would ring through the ages and serve as a turning point in the Indian Wars.
Jonah Hook was a man who had lost everything a man could lose--but the iron will to reclaim what had been taken from him. Now he must confront the fiery religious heretic who has enslaved his wife and the fierce Comanche tribe who has raised his long-lost sons. From Fort Laramie, land of Sioux and Cheyenne, to the empire of the Mormons in the shadow of tall mountains, and on to the Texas panhandle, where he will join the ranks of the Texas Rangers, the journey ahead will test Jonah's courage, cunning, and endurance to the limit. On this bloody trail of rescue and revenge, nothing will stop him save success . . . or death.
No one captures the glory, adventure and drama of the courageous men and women who tamed the American West like award-winning author Terry Johnston. His Plainsmen series brims with colorful characters, fierce battles and compelling historical lore. Entrenched on a poorly sheltered island, many of Seamus Donegan's crack squad of Army scouts lie dead--and many more are dying. Led by Colonel George Forsyth, fifty seasoned plainsmen had combed the Colorado Territory in search of Cheyenne. Along a fork of the Republican River, these brave men suddenly found themselves outnumbered twenty to one. Now Donegan, his fellow scouts, and his long-lost uncle are trapped--and under attack. As the battle rages, Donegan is stalked by a traitor who seeks revenge for old wrongs. Together the dwindling band awaits a heroic last-minute rescue from the merciless nine-day seige--known today as the Battle of Beecher Island..
Ashes of Heaven Terry C. Johnston The U.S. Army's goal: to wipe out the remnants of scattered, starving people on the frontier's Northern Plain. But before Colonel Nelson A. Miles, the Bear Coat, launched his spring campaign into the heart of Indian country, the commander took one last stab at negotiations—and called on a Cheyenne woman and the famous half-breed pony scout named Johnny Bruguier. Together, they traveled to the valley of the upper Rosebud River to urge the Sioux to surrender. But a personal grudge exploded in the ranks of the U.S. Army. Now, as a man and a woman risk their lives for peace, the culmination of the great Sioux War is set in motion, and the Bear Coat takes on the last of the fierce Lakota warriors...
In the conclusion to the saga of Jonah Hook, Hook heads for Utah with his son Jeremiah and Shoshone friend Two Sleep toward a bloody showdown with the brutal zealot who is holding his wife prisoner.
Black Sun Terry C. Johnston No one captures the glory, adventure and drama of the courageous men and women who tamped the American West like award-winning author Terry Johnston. His Plainsmen series brims with colorful characters, fierce battles and compelling historical lore. Grueling winter gave way to bloody spring as Seamus Donegan and his fellow Army scouts rode west with the Kansas Pacific Railway. Led by the legendary "Buffalo" Bill Cody, they withstood blazing hit-and-run raids by Cheynne Dog Soldiers--while trailed by a skulking enemy from Donegan's past. Then, in midsummer, the fleeing Cheyennes camped. And the 5th Cavalry mounted the brutal surprise attack that would give rise to a fierce new warrior-leader named White Horse: the battle of Summit Springs, 1869.
“Terry Johnston is an authentic American treasure.”—Loren D. Estleman, author of Edsel As swirling snows fall from a leaden sky and a deadly winter approaches, two bitter enemies meet in a season of savage vengeance. Scout Seasmus Donegan—wondering whether he will ever return to Fort Laramie and the warm embrace of his wife and newborn son—is now under the command of Colonel Nelson A. Miles, who pushes his war-weary troops up the Tongue River into butte country. There, amid the rugged, snow-covered bluffs awaits Crazy Horse with a fighting force of Lakota braves one thousand strong. Gathering in the high, cold canyons, these courageous warriors prepare to engage Colonel Miles and the Fifth U.S. Infantry . . . one last chance for the proud Lakota to shape their own destiny, the last battle Crazy Horse will ever fight against the white man’s army.
After a terrible summer of blood and fire, scout Seamus Donegan finally has reason to rejoice: his wife, Samantha, has given birth to his first son. But the time to celebrate new life is short . . . for the old business of death continues. Phil Sheridan has gathered his officers at Fort Laramie for a war council to prepare the winter campaign. His objective: capture Crazy Horse, the elusive Sioux warrior chief whose exploits have put the U.S. cavalry to shame. Sending his scouts ahead—men such as Seamus Donegan and the legendary Yellowstone Kelly—Sheridan will march his armies north into the valley of the Red Fork of the Crazy Woman Creek . . . and into a battle that will prove as brutal and bitter as the killing winter winds. Praise for Terry C. Johnston “Johnston is an authentic American treasure.”—Loren D. Estleman, author of Edsel “Terry C. Johnston has emerged as the great frontier historical novelist of his generation.”—Paul Andrew Hutton, author of Phil Sheridan and His Army
Cries from the Earth Terry C. Johnston By mid-1877, trouble in the Northwest is brewing like a foul broth. Ill will is growing between white settlers and the Non-Treaty bands of the Nez Perce. The American government is forcing the Indians from their homelands onto the reservation. Many go quietly, thinking more about their families than of the pride of their warriors. But for a few holdouts, there's no room for compromise. Their history, their heritage and their ancestors are buried beneath that land. Although severely outnumbered and outgunned, a few brave warriors will heed the call of...CRIES FROM THE EARTH.
America's bestselling frontier writer combines his unique skills as both an acknowledged historian and a consummate storyteller, blending historical fact with powerful human emotions to vividly recreate the past for his millions of readers. In his most ambitious novel to date, Terry C. Johnston combines all the drama and gut-wrenching tragedy to tell the story of the Nez Perce War as a whole cloth, a complex tapestry of deeply wrought emotions and bitter betrayal. Johnston breathes life into little-known characters from this terrifying conflict that will leap out of the past with compelling urgency-page after page, everyone you will meet were real people at the most crucial point of their lives. This is a story of individuals, knitted together in a compelling mosaic of emotions that will sweep you up and carry you along at a gallop. Despite one bloody skirmish after another, the Non-Treaty bands of Nez Perce still believe they can leave all the turmoil and killing behind in Idaho, fleeing General O.O. Howard's army across the Lolo Trail into Montana Territory. Looking Glass and the fighting chiefs lead their people to the "Place of the Ground Squirrels"-there to rest a few days while the women cut new lodgepoles, the children play for the first time in many weeks, and everyone celebrates leaving the war behind, rejoicing that they are on their way to the buffalo country. But there in the Big Hole of southwestern Montana, a chill, misty dawn covered the advance of Colonel John Gibbon's Seventh U.S. Infantry as they stole down upon the sleeping, unsuspecting village...unleashing the bloodiest onslaught of the Nez Perce War!
Crack in the Sky continues the development of the young Titus Bass as he gradually learns the lore of the mountain man. From a raucous rendezvous of trappers to a searing fight with Comanche, from a frigid winter's chill to the angry heat of a chase with horse thieves, Titus Bass's West comes alive in the pages of this remarkable novel--and in its final scene, Titus Bass will meet young Josiah Paddock and form the deep friendship explored in the pagers of Carry the Wind.
“Terry Johnston is an authentic American treasure.”—Loren D. Estleman, author of Edsel As swirling snows fall from a leaden sky and a deadly winter approaches, two bitter enemies meet in a season of savage vengeance. Scout Seasmus Donegan—wondering whether he will ever return to Fort Laramie and the warm embrace of his wife and newborn son—is now under the command of Colonel Nelson A. Miles, who pushes his war-weary troops up the Tongue River into butte country. There, amid the rugged, snow-covered bluffs awaits Crazy Horse with a fighting force of Lakota braves one thousand strong. Gathering in the high, cold canyons, these courageous warriors prepare to engage Colonel Miles and the Fifth U.S. Infantry . . . one last chance for the proud Lakota to shape their own destiny, the last battle Crazy Horse will ever fight against the white man’s army.
Jonah Hook was a man who had lost everything a man could lose--but the iron will to reclaim what had been taken from him. Now he must confront the fiery religious heretic who has enslaved his wife and the fierce Comanche tribe who has raised his long-lost sons. From Fort Laramie, land of Sioux and Cheyenne, to the empire of the Mormons in the shadow of tall mountains, and on to the Texas panhandle, where he will join the ranks of the Texas Rangers, the journey ahead will test Jonah's courage, cunning, and endurance to the limit. On this bloody trail of rescue and revenge, nothing will stop him save success . . . or death.
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