The Grayback Series
I began writing the Grayback series over a decade ago and published the first, Long Road to Damascus in 2012. Five years later, there are four more titles to the series, the latest released this summer on the Franco-Prussian War, (introduced at the bottom of this article). The books take the main character, Bertram Tambling, a former Confederate soldier turned expatriate wanderer, on a globe trotting journey into other conflicts that occurred and shaped our world during the 1860's and 70's. Since additional books have been released, I've had a number of individuals who have read them in varying order and seemed to be satisfied in not starting with the first. At the same time, I have also had some individuals ask which one is first. The books are being written in a specific chronological order, (for now), and are meant to be read in order--but no one says you can't be a rebel and read whichever one suits your fancy first. I will list all of them below with a short description of each. If you are unfamiliar with the series, this will be a good overview and introduction, and I thought this a good time to briefly go over them as I finally got a around to seeing them all published properly on Kindle. Forgive me, I am old fashioned and like a paper book in my hand, but for all you e-reading junkies out there, you can rejoice.
As he is forced to battle through an apocalyptic landscape to return to his home and fiance, his actions quickly land him with a price on his head. With little choice but to flee, he and his friend Elwin Tenney strike out on a journey to find new purpose, eventually becoming soldiers in the employ of a wealthy family in Japan. But when they discover the clan's intention is for rebellion, their new job becomes much more than they bargained for.
By the Rivers of Babylon, more mature, yet just as superbly researched as its predecessor. It culminates in the summer of 1866 on the bloody battlefield of the Second Choshu Expedition, also known as the Summer War, and on the brutal streets of Kyoto, which is on the cusp of Civil War.
1). Long Road to Damascus: The first installment of Bertram Tambling's story opens up in the spring of 1864 during the battle of the Wilderness in Virginia, where Grant faced off with Lee. Fascinated with young sharpshooters in the Confederate Army, and intrigued by a class of soldiers who were using such modern tactics, yet were fighting for an old way of life, it made for an interesting protagonist. So Corporal Bertram Tambling veers from many other teen heroes, (he is sixteen in this book), by being a skilled sharpshooter rather than a drummer boy or uncertain "ranker." Asked to take on a mission for the Confederate Army, which takes him behind enemy lines, he is wounded while in an enemy uniform. Taken in by distant relations who are unknowing of his true loyalties, Bertram must learn to "follow where fate leads him." He eventually finds himself in the Monadnock Valley of New Hampshire where he finds friendship, family, and love, yet does he truly belong? Deep down his adventurous spirit and beloved South keep calling, and when he is well enough to return, he must decide where fate is calling him to be.
This is the shortest of the books at 304 pages, which includes a bibliography and further reading section. It was first intended for older teen readers but can be enjoyed by adults just as well, especially since the protagonist is much older in later books.
2). By the Rivers of Babylon, the second book in the Grayback series, finds Bertram Tambling returned to the Confederate Army in April, 1865, just as General Lee is about to surrender. Unable to accept defeat, and fearful since he served as a sharpshooter and spy, Bertram chooses to keep his rifle and run.
As he is forced to battle through an apocalyptic landscape to return to his home and fiance, his actions quickly land him with a price on his head. With little choice but to flee, he and his friend Elwin Tenney strike out on a journey to find new purpose, eventually becoming soldiers in the employ of a wealthy family in Japan. But when they discover the clan's intention is for rebellion, their new job becomes much more than they bargained for.
By the Rivers of Babylon, more mature, yet just as superbly researched as its predecessor. It culminates in the summer of 1866 on the bloody battlefield of the Second Choshu Expedition, also known as the Summer War, and on the brutal streets of Kyoto, which is on the cusp of Civil War.
Research for Babyon included the early days of Reconstruction, the aftermath of Sherman in the Carolinas, steam and sail travel during the mid-19th Century, the CSS Alabama privateer and its crew, and the early intervention of foreign interests in late Tokugawa Japan and it's consequences that boiled over in the Choshu insurrections of 1864-66, and the Boshin War. It is somewhat longer at 416 pages.
3). Exile is the third installment of the Grayback series. It is January of 1868 and Bertram Tambling, is at the end of his two year contract in Kyoto. Faced with uncertainty as to his future path, he decides to accept an officer's commission from the emperor, who has decided to rebel against the Shogun. However, Bertram soon discovers he may be in over his head. While he excels as a commander on the battlefield, he is far from prepared to battle in the field of politics. Right and wrong become difficult to decipher, and when he crosses paths with a band of daring French mercenaries, Bertram is forced to question everything he thought as truth. The increasingly bloody conflict also begins to awaken nightmarish memories of the desperate months he spent in the trenches of Petersburg three years earlier, further skewing his sense of reality. As he struggles with his faith, purpose, and the very definition of honor, he unexpectedly finds himself led down a path that could make him what he never thought possible: a traitor.
Research for Exile was extensive, and it took several years to write. It covers the entire Boshin War in Japan, the rise of Emperor Meiji and the beginning of the Meiji Era. There was a little known rebellion on the northern island of Hokkaido over the winter of 1868-69, where a band of Shinsengumi warriors and a handful of AWOL French officers tried to implement a Constitutional Republic, which they called the Republic of Ezo. Bertram Tambling becomes embroiled in this attempt. Research was also done on the last months of the siege at Petersburg, Virginia in the early part of 1865 and the attack on Fort Stedman, which is shown in flashbacks throughout the story. Since Exile covers all of these events, it is longer still at 426 pages and includes a "who's who" in the back listing both the fictional and real historical figures featured in the book.
4). "Invasion of his home put him in a uniform while still a child. His adolescent years were spent surviving battlefield after battlefield. Peacetime forces Bertram to come to terms, and to cope, with who he is as a man," is a fair summary of the main theme of Prodigal, the fourth book in the series.
The book opens in July of 1869, and Bertram Tambling is now a wandering warrior with no loyalties. After experiencing two failed rebellions, he has sworn off serving any nation ever again. Further disillusioned by the cold industrialization and despotic imperialism transforming the world around him, he turns his back on his code of honor. With a captured warship in his possession, and a misfit crew under his command, he embarks on a journey that has him sailing from one exotic port to the next. After tangling with Chinese pirates and escaping a failed relationship, his journey takes him to France, which in the spring of 1870 is unknowingly on the brink of war. But before Bertram again faces the fire of rifles or cannon, he must first fight a battle that will not be fought on any field, but battled deep within himself.
Prodigal is the most mature of the books in the series. Research led me to feel issues of 19th century veterans such as drug and alcohol abuse from attempting to treat old wound pain and PTSD, as well as a confusing sense of not knowing where they belonged in society outside of the military, was something that Bertram Tambling would have confronted and needed to deal with. Having been a soldier since the age of 12, Bertram is inadequately equipped to handle what most would consider normal social situations, including relationships with friends of either sex. At the end of it all, you can decide whether his attempts to deal with these inadequacies end in failure or success as he eventually decides to once again don a uniform. This time, for Napoleon III's France, as a member of one of their famous and colorful Zouave units.
In addition to the above events and topics, Bertram has flashbacks to Gettysburg and the role the sharpshooters played on the second day of that battle on July 2, 1863. Prodigal is 462 pages.
5). Forsaken is the fifth book in Bertram Tambling's saga. Beginning as a captain over a company of ex-Confederates who joined the French Army several years ago in Mexico, Bertram starts this book off hitting the ground at the Battle of Wissembourg in August of 1870. The entire Summer campaign of the Franco-Prussian War is covered in this book, and Bertram fights his way through 5 battles in only 30 days. As the armies of Prussia and her allies burn a destructive path across France, Bertram finds himself fighting in battles every bit as fierce and brutal as those he survived in Virginia--if not made worse by greater numbers and new advances in weaponry.
As the French ranks grow thinner, Bertram is promoted to where he has the terrible responsibility of command placed upon his shoulders. All too soon, he finds saving what remains of his battalion to be a near impossible task as the french Empire and its army dissolves around him.
Again, extensive research was completed for this book, and hopefully historical fiction fans will be able to gain a new insight into the often overlooked but historically pivotal Franco-Prussian War.
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