The Rev. Swan was truly a character in the best East Texas tradition and if I understand correctly the author (John W. Thomason) based him and some others in the book on real older friends and relatives who served with Hood and were still around in his childhood (Huntsville area) in the early 1900s.

I had a paperback copy in the mid 1950s but it got so tattered I tossed it out. While stationed at Heidleberg AAF W. Germany in the 1960s the post library had a worn copy, which I reread several times. In 1980 I ran across an old copy in the Little Rock library, read it, went back several months later and it had been sold at one of their "surplus" book sales. About 10 years ago when one of the new "big box" book stores opened in Little Rock I asked them if it might be available and they found and ordered a new copy. Unfortunately, I've not been able to locate since my last move 3 years ago.

While it is clearly fiction, it follows Hood's Brigade's actual history very well. It's probably still, at least in my opinion, one of the best WBTW tales I've read.