Memoirs of a Texan: War

Summary

In 1858 Jim Cobb, an earnest, thoughtful young man, enters Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. Three years later the United States spirals into a bloody Civil War. Reluctant to take sides, Jim does not comprehend the staggering number of lives that will be lost and that he will kill ten men before the war ends. When North Carolina, his home state, secedes, Jim joins the militia in his hometown. With a quick grasp of tactics and solid work ethic, Jim quickly rises from Company Second Lieutenant to Major and Third Corps Chief of Staff. He serves two of the Army of Northern Virginia’s finest generals – Dorsey Pender and A P Hill. Toward war end, Jim commands the newly formed 78th North Carolina regiment at Petersburg, is captured, and spends the remainder of the war at Fort Delaware Prison. The gallantry and misery of America’s most tragic war is recounted through Jim Cobb, Missy Morgan who loves him, and Sam Payne, a New York Tribune reporter Jim meets at John Brown’s hanging. Memoirs of a Texan: War is a historic fiction that follows Jim Cobb from a VMI cadet to staff aide to Generals Dorsey Pender and A P HIll and command of the 78th North Carolina Regiment. Jim survives Fort Delaware Union Prison and,, with stolen Union payroll, finds promise of a new beginning in Texas.