In a historical novel timed for the sesquicentenary of the start of the Civil War, first-time author Karl Bacon gives a first-person account of the frontlines of battle in An Eye for Glory: The Civil War Chronicles of a Citizen Soldier.
Told through narration and letters, An Eye for Glory follows Connecticut shopkeeper and family man Michael Palmer, who, feeling a moral duty, enlists in the Union army despite his wife’s objections. He fights at Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, where his lifelong buddy dies. Outraged, he kills a Confederate soldier at Gettysburg with excessive malice and feels he has lost his soul. After the war, at his wife’s urging, he returns the soldier’s Bible to his widow and experiences the true depth of God’s grace.
Michael’s journey of descent and redemption unfolds slowly and seems almost a subplot to the narrative of the larger war. Still, with attention to details such as Union troops trading their coffee for Rebel tobacco, An Eye for Glory offers an engaging look at the everyday experiences of Civil War soldiers.
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