Michael palmer is a good man, a family man. But honor and duty push him to leave his comfortable life and answer the call from Abraham Lincoln to fight for his country. This 'citizen soldier' learns quickly that war is more than the battle on the field. Long marches under extreme conditions, illness, and disillusionment challenge at every turn. Faith seems lost in a blur of smoke and blood ... and death. Michael's only desire is to kill as many Confederate soldiers as he can so he can go home. He coldly counts off the rebels that fall to his bullets. Until he is brought up short by a dying man holding up his Bible. It's in the heat of battle at Gettysburg and the solemn aftermath that Michael begins to understand the grave cost of the war upon his soul. Here the journey really begins as he searches for the man he was and the faith he once held so dearly. With the help of his beloved wife, Jesse Ann, he takes the final steps towards redemption and reconciliation.Using first-hand accounts of the 14th Connecticut Infantry, Karl Bacon has crafted a detailed, genuine and compelling novel on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Intensely personal and accurate to the times, culture, and tragedy of the Civil War, An Eye for Glory may change you in ways you could have never imagined as well.
From Publishers Weekly
For his first novel, Bacon has crafted the memoir of a Union Army veteran. Idealistic Michael Palmer enlists to fight slavery in 1862, but the brutality and senseless slaughter he witnesses produce disillusionment, rage, and guilt. After the war he manifests what today is called post-traumatic stress disorder. Evocative narrative writing is filled with accurate details of such battles as Antietam and Gettysburg and of the daily lives of ordinary soldiers. Dialogue and characterization is weaker. But the writing gathers force, and the novel ends with an emotionally gripping encounter that brings the book's evangelical Christian beliefs to the forefront. The depiction of 19th-century Christianity, however, is less authentic to the era than the military details; in an age when denominations mattered, the hero and clergy appear to belong to none. Rituals and reports of "a good death" that were crucial to soldiers and families during the Civil War are absent. But overall, the novel offers an engaging introduction to Civil War history as the 150th anniversary of the conflict unfolds over the next four years. (Apr.)
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About the Author
Karl Bacon is a first time novelist, but long time student of the Civil War. He and his wife, Jackie live in Naugatuck, Connecticut.