Troy Blackford's Books

All Roads Led to Gettysburg

A New Look at the Civil War's Pivotal Battle

By: Troy D. Harman

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All Roads Led to Gettysburg

A New Look at the Civil War's Pivotal Battle

By: Troy D. Harman

It has long been a trope of Civil War history that Gettysburg was an accidental battlefield. General Lee, the old story goes, marched blindly into Pennsylvania while his chief cavalryman Jeb Stuart rode and raided incommunicado. Meanwhile, General Meade, in command only a few days, gave uncertain chase to an enemy whose exact positions he did not know. And so these ignorant armies clashed by first light at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. In the spirit of his iconoclastic Lee’s Real Plan at Gettysburg, Troy D. Harman argues for a new interpretation: once Lee invaded Pennsylvania and the Union army pursued, a battle at Gettysburg was entirely predictable, perhaps inevitable. Most Civil War battles took place along major roads, railroads, and waterways; the armies needed to move men and equipment, and they needed water for men, horses, and artillery. And yet this perspective hasn’t been fully explored when it comes to Gettysburg. Look at an 1863 map, says Harman: look at the area framed in the north by the Susquehanna River and in the south by the Potomac, in the east by the Northern Central Railroad and in the west by the Cumberland Valley Railroad. This is where the armies played a high-stakes game of chess in late June 1863. Their movements were guided by strategies of caution and constrained by roads, railroads, mountains and mountain passes, rivers and creeks, all of which led the armies to Gettysburg. It’s true that Lee was disadvantaged by Stuart’s roaming and Meade by his newness to command, which led both to default to the old strategic and logistical bedrocks they learned at West Point—and these instincts helped reinforce the magnetic pull toward Gettysburg. Moreover, once the battle started, Harman argues, the blue and gray fought tactically for the two creeks—Marsh and Rock, essential for watering men and horses and sponging artillery—that mark the battlefield in the east and the west as well as for the roadways that led to Gettysburg from all points of the compass. This is a perspective often overlooked in many accounts of the battle, which focus on the high ground—the Round Tops, Cemetery Hill—as key tactical objectives. Gettysburg Ranger and historian Troy Harman draws on a lifetime of researching the Civil War and more than thirty years of studying the terrain of Gettysburg and south-central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland to reframe the story of the Battle of Gettysburg. In the process he shows there’s still much to say about one of history’s most written-about battles. This is revisionism of the best kind.

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Page Count

357

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

0811770656

ISBN 13

9780811770651

Flotsam

By: Troy A. Blackford

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Flotsam

By: Troy A. Blackford

A collection of six bizarre and eerie short stories too strange to be published by respectable literary journals, 'Flotsam' will take you from hospital hallways to interstellar secrets, from underground hideouts to alien intruders, and from rabbit-murdering overdoses to revenge on the edge of global annihilation. Find out what mainstream and independent literary journals and small magazines DON'T want you to read! Six stories by author Troy Blackford that aren't a good fit for sane publications, now presented together for the first time.

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CreateSpace

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ISBN 10

1500959421

ISBN 13

9781500959425

Through the Woods

By: Troy A. Blackford

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Through the Woods

By: Troy A. Blackford

Ben, fresh out of college, is starting his first week of work at a top secret governmental agency that lies deep in the protected woods in the north of the country. He can only pick up bits and pieces about the fantastical things that go on at 'the Agency, ' but he quickly realizes that the team's current assignment might be biting off more than they can chew. The experiment that his team is spending the most time on also has the most potential to go wrong, though only Ben seems to see it at first. What begins as a mundane procedural testing of some seemingly-ordinary house cats quickly flies out of control - for reasons that even the most veteran of the Agency researchers can scarcely believe.

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Page Count

326

Publisher

Createspace Independent Pub

Published Date

ISBN 10

1480219207

ISBN 13

9781480219205

Booster & Reeves

The Night of the Revenants

By: Troy Blackford

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Booster & Reeves

The Night of the Revenants

By: Troy Blackford

More horror from Troy Blackford, author of 'Strange Way Out, ' 'For Those With Eyes to See, ' 'Critical Incident, ' and more. A combination of terrifying chills and ridiculous laughs so unusual that you'll be crying your eyes out with humor even as you cower under your sheets out of sheer dread for your imagination's sanity. Answers the question 'What's it like to be scared out of your wits while laughing yourself to the point of drooling?' with a resounding 'Very good, sir.' "A great job entwining humor with sheer horror." "The author has taken the genre of horror up several great notches." "Absolute delight and perfection.... a truly enjoyable book." "Seldom did I laugh so much while reading a story." "Another surefire winner from Troy Blackford." "A horror twist on P.G. Wodehouse." "I laughed myself silly through this... horror tome." On what seems to be a perfectly ordinary night, young Broderick 'Brodie' Booster flips on the evening news to find that New York City has been overrun by hundreds of thousands of reanimated corpses. After a visit from his previously dead Aunt Gertie, Booster and his manservant Reeves make a quick trip to a hardware store to outfit themselves with decent zomboidal defenses, and set out on a harrowing trek across town to confront the thieving maid responsible for the hordes of the undead. Every step of the way, they encounter the unusual, the sinister, the depraved, and the hilarious. From irritable diva news reporters to crab-like zombies and arachnid pooches, things go from weird to worse. Without the help of the unflappable Reeves, the ditsy Brodie would have been munched for what there was of his brains long ago. But, even together, are they a match for the ancient evil fueling this dark 'Night of the Revenants?

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Page Count

122

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CreateSpace

Published Date

ISBN 10

1492821594

ISBN 13

9781492821595

Emergent Pattern

By: Troy Blackford

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Emergent Pattern

By: Troy Blackford

A convenience store shopkeeper. A disappointed congresswoman. The CEO of a high-tech firm. All have their ordinary mornings cut short by a crisis.A day at the office becomes a deathtrap. A walk through the streets becomes a stroll through a warzone.Chief Bentley finds himself in the middle of an Emergent Pattern, one that only he and his colleagues can hope to stop. But once trapped inside the enemy's web, can there be any escape from net of death and deception?The pattern might become clear, but the way out of it is anything but.

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Page Count

156

Published Date

ISBN 10

1481896156

ISBN 13

9781481896153

Critical Incident

By: Troy Blackford

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Critical Incident

By: Troy Blackford

A wave of inexplicable vandalism from the city's homeless sweeps the town - but the more the local police force tug on the thread of what might be behind this strangely coordinated effort, the more their understanding of events unravels. Soon, a group of officers are swept into a dark and deadly underground world of murder and medical supplies, chemicals and corruption, confusion and confectioner's gel. A head-scratching mystery quickly becomes a heart-pounding action thrill ride filled with twists, turns, and maybe even a Pez dispenser supercomputer or two. With lives in the balance, what will be the outcome of the city's most 'CRITICAL INCIDENT' to date? ---------------------------------- First, strange markings appear all over town, marks that turn out to be made by homeless people working in exchange for food. Then, women all over the city begin to disappear. Next, supplies are reported missing. Then, corpses start being found. What is going on? The more they look for answers, the more two officers of the city's police force begin finding fresh, murderous questions. Swiftly, their search leads to a deadly, 'CRITICAL INCIDENT.

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Page Count

100

Publisher

Createspace Independent Pub

Published Date

ISBN 10

1480052469

ISBN 13

9781480052468

Strange Way Out

By: Troy Blackford

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Strange Way Out

By: Troy Blackford

Sammy is a man with problems. Most of the time, he doesn't remember what day it is, what town he lives in, or even what he's doing on a day-to-day basis. Sammy's worst problem is that all his other problems are his own fault. He's twenty-six, has no job, and lives with his mom - and he spends all his efforts trying to hide his dark secrets from the world... and from himself. One day, during a routine trip to commit mail fraud, his life takes a turn for the weird. What is for him a normal morning becomes the strangest situation he has ever faced: and it only snowballs from there. But is his day merely strange, or is it a 'Strange Way Out?' Along the way, he meets a new friend, is forced to confront his darkest secrets, and faced with a choice: keep his secrets inside, to rot him from the inside out, or expose his truth for the world to see and judge. A fight for survival in every sense - physical, emotional, and spiritual - 'Strange Way Out' is a story of one young man's dawning realization that he has a part to play in his own life, and his struggle to find the courage to play that part as best he can, for better or worse, in the face of seemingly unnatural terrors and all too human threats to his existence.

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ISBN 10

149216111X

ISBN 13

9781492161110

Robbed of Sleep

Stories to Stay Up for

By: Troy Blackford,Mercedes Yardley,Val Tenterhosen,Anthony Rapino

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Robbed of Sleep

Stories to Stay Up for

By: Troy Blackford,Mercedes Yardley,Val Tenterhosen,Anthony Rapino

If you're the type of person who takes the phone off the hook when sanity calls, then you simply can't do without these eighteen short stories from some of the strangest dark fiction authors out there. From the deepest jungle to an endless loop, from a cracked boss to a dying man, the places and people you will meet between these pages strain credulity, inflame the imagination, and stealthily swipe those precious moments that make up your nightly rest. Take a dip into the furthest reaches of reason with some of today's best authors with these strange and unruly STORIES TO STAY UP FOR, and we'll make sure you're ROBBED OF SLEEP.

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Page Count

212

Publisher

CreateSpace

Published Date

ISBN 10

1500152358

ISBN 13

9781500152352

Book's by Troy Blackford

All Roads Led to Gettysburg

All Roads Led to Gettysburg

Flotsam

Flotsam

Through the Woods

Through the Woods

Booster & Reeves

Booster & Reeves

Emergent Pattern

Emergent Pattern

Critical Incident

Critical Incident

Strange Way Out

Strange Way Out

Robbed of Sleep

Robbed of Sleep

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