The Forty-Eighters on Possum Creek: A Texas Civil War Story
The Forty-Eighters of Possum Creek: A Texas Civil War Story is a departure for State House Press. This remarkable work of vintage historical fiction focuses on the life of one young man, Kuno Sartorius, who grows up and comes of age in a community of educated German immigrants during the waning months of the Civil War. Author William Trenckmann serialized the novel in his newspaper, Das Bellville Wochenblatt [The Bellville Weekly]. His novel, Die Lateiner am Possum Creek is one of the few works of fiction to treat the plight of the minority Texas Germans during the war.

However, it is more than a German story, and provides vignettes of all aspects of life, and of all classes in Texas, on both the home front and the Trans-Mississippi theater. Throughout are the young men from all walks of life brought together by Confederate conscription and facing the same hardships of war.

Expertly translated and annotated by James C. Kearney, this novel becomes a shadow memoir of the American Civil War. The educated German settlers of Millheim had fled their native land because of strife and revolution, choosing the bucolic life on the Texas frontier over the sophisticated university towns of Germany. Their children, though, faced uncertainties of their own as Texas seceded and joined the Confederacy and depended on all military aged men to do their part in a cause few Germans in the neighborhood cared for, and to perpetuate slavery which most abhorred. Kearney’s notes help the reader navigate the story, and reveal the “story behind the story.” 

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The Forty-Eighters on Possum Creek: A Texas Civil War Story
The Forty-Eighters of Possum Creek: A Texas Civil War Story is a departure for State House Press. This remarkable work of vintage historical fiction focuses on the life of one young man, Kuno Sartorius, who grows up and comes of age in a community of educated German immigrants during the waning months of the Civil War. Author William Trenckmann serialized the novel in his newspaper, Das Bellville Wochenblatt [The Bellville Weekly]. His novel, Die Lateiner am Possum Creek is one of the few works of fiction to treat the plight of the minority Texas Germans during the war.

However, it is more than a German story, and provides vignettes of all aspects of life, and of all classes in Texas, on both the home front and the Trans-Mississippi theater. Throughout are the young men from all walks of life brought together by Confederate conscription and facing the same hardships of war.

Expertly translated and annotated by James C. Kearney, this novel becomes a shadow memoir of the American Civil War. The educated German settlers of Millheim had fled their native land because of strife and revolution, choosing the bucolic life on the Texas frontier over the sophisticated university towns of Germany. Their children, though, faced uncertainties of their own as Texas seceded and joined the Confederacy and depended on all military aged men to do their part in a cause few Germans in the neighborhood cared for, and to perpetuate slavery which most abhorred. Kearney’s notes help the reader navigate the story, and reveal the “story behind the story.” 

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The Forty-Eighters on Possum Creek: A Texas Civil War Story

The Forty-Eighters on Possum Creek: A Texas Civil War Story

The Forty-Eighters on Possum Creek: A Texas Civil War Story
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The Forty-Eighters on Possum Creek: A Texas Civil War Story

The Forty-Eighters on Possum Creek: A Texas Civil War Story

Overview

The Forty-Eighters of Possum Creek: A Texas Civil War Story is a departure for State House Press. This remarkable work of vintage historical fiction focuses on the life of one young man, Kuno Sartorius, who grows up and comes of age in a community of educated German immigrants during the waning months of the Civil War. Author William Trenckmann serialized the novel in his newspaper, Das Bellville Wochenblatt [The Bellville Weekly]. His novel, Die Lateiner am Possum Creek is one of the few works of fiction to treat the plight of the minority Texas Germans during the war.

However, it is more than a German story, and provides vignettes of all aspects of life, and of all classes in Texas, on both the home front and the Trans-Mississippi theater. Throughout are the young men from all walks of life brought together by Confederate conscription and facing the same hardships of war.

Expertly translated and annotated by James C. Kearney, this novel becomes a shadow memoir of the American Civil War. The educated German settlers of Millheim had fled their native land because of strife and revolution, choosing the bucolic life on the Texas frontier over the sophisticated university towns of Germany. Their children, though, faced uncertainties of their own as Texas seceded and joined the Confederacy and depended on all military aged men to do their part in a cause few Germans in the neighborhood cared for, and to perpetuate slavery which most abhorred. Kearney’s notes help the reader navigate the story, and reveal the “story behind the story.” 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781933337845
Publisher: State House Press at The Texas Center-Schreiner University
Publication date: 07/20/2020
Pages: 276
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

WILLIAM A. TRENCKMANN, born to German-immigrant parents in 1859, grew up in the farming community of Millheim, Texas. His career included serving as an educator, a newspaper editor, and as a legislator in the Texas House of Representatives. He died in Austin in 1937. JAMES C. KEARNEY, the author of multiple works on German Texas history, is a Fellow of the Texas Institute of Letters among other scholarly awards and accolades. A combat veteran, Kearney earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, and Air Medal, and Army Commendation Medal (with five oak leaf clusters) for heroism in Vietnam, as well as the Purple Heart. He is a lecturer in the Department of Germanic Studies at University of Texas in Austin.

Table of Contents

Neighborhood Children 000

The Disturbed Whist Game 000

War Council and Search 000

Hedwig in the Forest 000

Robbers' Nest or Knights' Castle? 000

The Story of the Banished 000

The Return Trip-Two Consolation Visits 000

Kuno Prepares for War 000

Kuno Receives a Difficult Task 000

The Unwilling Recruit 000

A Conspiracy and What Became of It 000

Taking His Leave 000

Kuno Wants to Join His Regiment 000

Kuno's Career as a Soldier 000

The Lieutenant's Conversion 000

Other Things Kuno Experienced During Wartime 000

The Breakup 000

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Related Subjects

Fiction
Historical Fiction
Historical Fiction - Other
Fiction
Historical Fiction
Historical Fiction - Other

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