Bob’s connection with the regions discussed in his work are more than mere coincidence. Some of his own family settled first in North Carolina during the 17th century and were granted land in East Tennessee for their efforts in the American Revolution. Others migrated with the Mormons to Mormon Station (now Genoa), Nevada and put down roots there. Ben Jones, Bob’s 3rd great-grandfather and one of the characters in the book, was a Welsh locksmith turned blacksmith, and some of his handiwork (a huge single-blade plow) is on display in the museum there in Genoa. Ben had been evangelized with others in his family and migrated from Wales with the Mormons in 1849. Several of Bob’s ancestors are buried, both in Genoa, and in the small family plot in Jacks Valley, just north of Genoa, where the family established a cattle ranch.

Some locals and historians ascribe the ‘Jacks Valley’ name to Jake Winter, one of Bob’s antecedents.

At times Freemasonry played a significant role during the Civil War. ‘Brothers’ from both sides of the conflict often found it preferable to relieve one another’s distress than to impose the demands of the politics of their allegiances on each other.

The vernacular, or dialect we see assigned to various members of the cast stem from Bob’s own experiences and his exposure to friends and acquaintances in his own life. Raised in rural Santa Clara County during the great depression and the ‘Dust Bowl’ phenomenon in the Midwest, he saw the migration of southern and southwestern families to the promising fields of California and was impressed by their manner of speech. To hire ranch hands, Bob’s father had only to visit the local railroad depot, select one or two of the most promising ‘tramps’ that had alighted from the freight trains passing through, and put them to work. Some of these folks stayed on the ranch for years, some took more promising jobs in the area, and some moved on, but their persona he put to work in his story.

As the forward in the book points out, the American Civil War provides the perfect setting for a story in which human drama, history, geography, and dedication to one’s principles are involved. Though we now know, the ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery was being phased out across the planet, in the American south there was abundant rationalization for its retention, and through the course of the story we see members of our cast of characters altering their allegiances for a variety of reasons.

As pointed out in several places, gradual decline of the southern economy was ongoing and inevitable given the existing mindset. What seems most tragic today, is the effect the war had on that decline, primarily caused by the inflexibility of the politicians and some of the landed gentry to accept change.

Though it isn’t material to this story, students of the Civil War may wonder, as I did, why it was so difficult for General Grant, with all the strength of his Army of the Mississippi to invade and conquer Vicksburg, Mississippi. Confederate General Pemberton made repeated pleas for reinforcements for his position there, but not getting any help, he still held out for months. Why was that?

A visit to Vicksburg reveals the reasons. The prevailing winds, there are from the west, picking up dust from the vast expanse of the plains. Then, crossing the Mississippi, where moist air rises and traps the particles of dust from the air, those dust particles are randomly deposited east if the river, resulting in hills and valleys so steep that they can’t be scaled without great expenditure of time and effort. As a result, the terrain surrounding Vicksburg is so steep that resisting any assaulting army is like shooting fish in a barrel . . . virtually!

Siege and starvation were Grant’s only effective means of succeeding, and he used them wisely.

Several of the other characters are replications of people Bob knows or has known in his own life. In writing the story, Bob found that he could usually plot the path that the various members of the cast were to take, but occasionally he found that they would proceed in unanticipated directions and all that the author could do would be to follow along and write it down.

His interest in history was further inspired by high school and college courses, and though his college degree is in Public Administration, his fascination with family history never wavered. Bob’s family tree, and that of his wife Carolyne, number in the thousands, dating back to European royalty and ultimately to William the Conqueror, Robert the Bruce, and Charlamagne. Their family lines intersect at the Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts in 1620 and other various points in history.