Gray & Blue

by Anthony Wood

Steaming South on the Mississippi River to enlist in the Confederate Army, Lummy Tullos leaves behind the life he always wanted. With little training and even less experience as a soldier, he joins the 27th Louisiana Volunteer Infantry to face the approaching Yankee juggernaut marching on Vicksburg. His singular purpose is to protect home and family from the blue invader.

Enduring heat, cold, horrific assaults, sickness, privation, and starvation through a forty-seven day siege, it is his comrades in the trenches—gray and blue alike—who give him hope... until tragedy strikes him to the core. With death at every turn and little prospect of ever seeing home again, he begins to question his commitment, his faith, and the nation for which he fights, suffers, and kills. How can he honor his oath to the Confederacy when he no longer believes in the cause it defends?

Lummy pushes forward until the battle for Vicksburg is lost. As he marches with his defeated army under the conquering Union flag, he comes to realize that the greatest surrender will be within.

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Publisher: Tiree
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About the Author

Anthony Wood grew up in historic Natchez, Mississippi, fueling a life-long love of history. Not long after high school, he lived and worked in Alaska for several years. He returned to the South and ministered for nearly three decades among the poor, homeless, and incarcerated. Leading an effort that planted five urban churches inspired him to co-author Up Close and Personal: Embracing the Poor about his work in Memphis, Tennessee. He also authored a number of articles and stories about inner city ministry.

Anthony is a member of Turner’s Battery, a Civil War re-enactment group, the Civil War Roundtable of Arkansas, the Oghma Creative Media board, and serves as secretary for White County Creative Writers’ group. His short stories and poetry have won awards and have been published in Saddlebag Dispatches, The Vault of Terror, and The Avocet: A Journal of Nature Poetry.

When not writing, Anthony enjoys roaming and researching historical sites, camping and kayaking on the Mississippi River, and being with family. Anthony and his wife, Lisa, live in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Contact Anthony at awoodxulon@yahoo.com or find him on Facebook.


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