Rebel Chief: The Motley Life of Colonel William Holland Thomas, C.S.A.

After the phenomenal success of his first novel Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier described his next novel as being based on the life of a white man who was made an Indian chief, served in the government in Washington D.C., fought on the side of the South in the Civil War by leading a band of guerilla warriors, and eventually wound up dying in a mental institution.

That man was William Holland Thomas.

Thomas, a Southerner, has a story that embodies much of the dark side of the American dream i...