The Fifth Conspiracy: A Novel - Hardcover

Jones, Ted

9780891415152: The Fifth Conspiracy: A Novel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0891415157 ISBN 13: 9780891415152

Publisher: Presidio Press, 1995

Ordered west following the Battle of Gettysburg, Union officer Samuel Wade reports to Major General William Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland on the eve of the Battle of Chickamauga. Separated from friendly forces by the impact of the Confederate onslaught, Wade decides that the safest line of retreat is south, ultimately deep into enemy territory. Calling on skills he developed earlier in the war when he spied for the Union behind Rebel lines, Wade successfully passes as a Confederate officer on a special mission. Before he can safely make his way North, however, Wade discovers a conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln! Driven by this knowledge, as well as the discovery that his brother Simon is incarcerated in Richmond's notorious Libby Prison, he is drawn back into clandestine operations behind enemy lines.

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From Booklist:

In this sequel to Hard Road to Gettysburg (1993), Jones immerses his readers in Civil War battlefields and behind-the-front planning and espionage with a tale that reaches from the end of Gettysburg to the start of Sherman's March. Especially interesting is the Western segment of the war (not often covered in fiction) and the trials of the Colored Infantry. Jones reintroduces Sam Wade and his extended family (from the North and South): his wealthy adoptive mother, who owns shoe factories in the East and Midwest; his stepfather in Washington, D.C.; and his biological parents, sister, and identical twin brother in the South. Wade, who nearly killed his brother at Gettysburg, now works to free him from a rebel prison (where it's believed he's Wade). He then moves on to foil a plot to assassinate President Lincoln. Wade's transitions from spy to battle commander, though not particularly credible, make for exciting fiction. Denise Perry Donavin

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