Appalachian Crisis

About the Book

1859- Late Fall- A courier, alias Smith, felt his unaccustomed work shoes straddling a heavy leather satchel. The train lurched as the conductor called "Monocracy Junction! All out for Frederick, Maryland transfer." A brakeman hurried past the seats, leaving the car door open. The blast of cold air, from the moving train, reduced the feeble effort of the lone stove in the car.

"Someday", Alexander Thuer remarked to his companion, Samuel Colt, "There has to be a better way to heat passenger trains." Colt, immersed in thought of his company's past display in London, England, nodded. Business was secondary. There was a charming London lass who presented him with a son that became linked to his brother, John Caldwell Colt, convicted of murder. Elizabeth Colt, Sam's wife accepted the son in good grace.

On the seat, next to colt, was an unusual leather valise for delivery in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, the same destination as courier Smith.

Appalachian Crisis digs deep with planning by a "Secret Six" providing finances and property in the locale of the second United States Armory and Arsenal, within the nation.

Detailed, love, death, intrigue, murder and education of free negros, whites and slaves are centered in the Harper's Ferry area, bordered by the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.

John Brown's raid and the Civil War require 126 fictional and 210 historical characters to weave the story.

About the Author

C.O. Lord:
Historical Researcher since 1975. Military, Ordnance, Christianity, Political, Ascendancy of Man, Short Story writer-unpublished.