Johnny D. Boggs Bücher

"On September 7, 1876, the James-Younger gang attempted to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota ... author Johnny D. Boggs shifts perspectives from one first-person account to another to describe the bloody robbery, as well as the events leading to it and its aftermath"--

Caleb Hart was looking forward to a grand adventure on his uncle's ranch, 1200 miles from home and well beyond the eyes of his watchful parents. He knew nothing about the life of a cowboy, but reckoned he'd learn quick enough. And he did--by keeping one motto close to his heart: You ride for the brand. It was the one thing he could count on through rustling and kidnapping and hardcases after his hide. But what happens when the brand turns against him?

"That was the year we had no food." It's the spring of 1864, and times are hard in Washington County, Arkansas, especially for thirteen-year-old Travis Ford. He hasn't heard from his father, a sergeant in the Second Arkansas Cavalry, in months. His mother is struggling to make ends meet on the family farm and abandoned sawmill near Poison Spring. All Travis really wants to do is to follow his passion-make up adventure stories in the style of Alexandre Dumas. But the Civil War keeps getting in his way. Since his mother hails from Illinois and has Abolitionist leanings, the Ford family-including Travis' twin sister, Edith, and their seven-year-old brother, Baby Hugh-has few friends to turn to for help, only eccentric Miss Mary Frederick, who owns a cotton plantation down the road, and Uncle Willard Ford, a slave trader in nearby Camden. For the most part, Anna Louella Ford and her children find themselves alone, and they are about to become even more isolated.

The reality of frontier life in Kansas becomes brutally clear to twelve-year-old James Coady McIlvain when his father is scalped and he is taken prisoner by hostile Indians. Escaping with the aid of Tunequi, Coady finds himself with a buffalo sharpshooter that he imagines is the embodiment of his hero, Buffalo Bill Cody, a role in which the circumspect Griffith feels himself totally inadequate.

Noah Benton, a teenager with a great memory, a head for arithmetic, and dreams of excitement, is hired along with his older brother to help drive a herd of Texas longhorns to Abilene, Kansas. But Noah's trail boss happens to be John Wesley Hardin, a notorious killer who thinks Texas lawmen won't look for a fugitive in a crew of hardworking cowboys. After Hardin sees a profit in Noah's ability to count and memorize cards in gambling dens, Noah's dreams of excitement quickly turn into nightmares -- for Hardin will kill with little provocation. Earning the nicknames ''Counting Boy,'' ''The Abilene Kid,'' and ''Abilene,'' Noah survives the bloody journey to Kansas, only to learn that Abilene rightfully deserves its nickname as a Sodom or Gomorrah. In a town where anything goes, the marshal, legendary gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok, reluctantly forms a truce with Hardin -- leaving Noah caught in the middle. As summer stretches into fall, Noah finds another friend, a special deputy named Mike Williams, who tries to keep Noah from stumbling on his way to manhood. In this well-researched historical novel, eight-time Spur Award-winning author Johnny D. Boggs chronicles Abilene's last year as a cattle town, 1871, while humanizing Hardin and Hickok and painting sobering portraits of a city undergoing rapid change, and the never-changing challenges teenagers face on their path to adulthood.

Multiple award-winning author Johnny D. Boggs, one of the most respected and popular writers of Western fiction, brings to life the harsh reality of cattle drives in a powerful, trailblazing adventure inspired by the harrowing true story of the1866 cattle drive from Texas to Montana--and the legendary man who dared the impossible...The Civil War is over. The future of the American West is up for grabs. Any man crazy enough to lead a herd of Texas longhorns to the north stands to make a fortune--and make history. That man would be Nelson Story. A bold entrepreneur and miner, he knows a golden opportunity when he sees one. But it won't be easy. Cowboys and bandits have guns, farmers have sick livestock, and the Army's have their own reasons to stop the drive. Even worse, Story's top hand is an ornery Confederate veteran who used to be his enemy. But all that is nothing compared to the punishing weather, the deadly stampedes--and the bloodthirsty wrath of the Sioux...This is the incredible saga of a man named Story. A true legend of the Old West. And the ever-beating heart of the American Dream.

Originally published: Detroit, Michigan: Five Star, 2013.

The story explores the plight of former Confederates who, facing dire conditions in Union Army prison camps, become "Galvanized Yankees" by enlisting to fight against Native Americans in the West. These soldiers navigate a treacherous environment where trust is scarce and betrayal is common, compelling them to fight not only against external foes but also for their survival amidst suspicion and hostility.

The only way to escape the purgatory that was the Florence Stockade was to die. So on February 3, 1865, Zebulon Hogan died and was buried in the prisoners' cemetery. It was young Ebenezer Chase, a runaway slave, who saw the shadowy figure of a hand clawing through the muddy dirt over that grave.Zeb Hogan has a mission that goes far beyond escaping from the Stockade. He has sworn an oath to other prisoners to pursue and kill a traitorous Sergeant who traded blue for gray and is now in Vicksburg. The problem for Zeb is that he knows nothing of the surrounding country and is likely to be intercepted. Ebenezer, despite being a runaway no less vulnerable to capture, does know the country, and perhaps together they can join forces to get where they want to go.