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Overview
This isn't an ordinary Civil War tale. It is the all-true but little-known story of Adam "Stovepipe" Johnson-Kentucky legend, Texas hero, and Confederate cavalry officer-who boldly led the first Confederate raid across the Mason-Dixon Line to capture the thriving river-port community of Newburgh, Indiana, during the American Civil War. Not a shot was fired.With the politically divided landscape of Civil War Kentucky and the steamboat economy of the Ohio River as its backdrop, this is the historically accurate account of surprise nocturnal strikes, opportunistic military occupations, and a swashbuckling Rebel icon's daring daylight invasion into the Northern homeland that sealed the fate of western Kentucky for the remainder of the war.
Vivid, thorough, and painstakingly researched, Thunder from a Clear Sky documents five critical weeks of 1862 Civil War history and shares the untold tale of one man's immeasurable impact on a nation at war.
"A fascinating account of how a skilled former Indian fighter gathered a few Kentucky rebels and 'woke up' the slumbering Indiana Home Guard."
-Evansville Courier & Press Book Reviews
"An important and, until now, largely neglected story about the American Civil War... Thunder from a Clear Sky stands as a fresh and important contribution in a field long studied."-Professor Randy K. Mills, Ph.D., Oakland City University, author of Jonathan Jennings: Indiana's First Governor
Synopsis
Union Army officer and noted Kentucky historian Edmund L. Starling said of Adam Stovepipe Johnson's Confederate raid on Newburgh, Johnson performed perhaps the most reckless, and yet most successful, military master stroke achieved by any commander of high or low authority, in either army during the war. Thunder from a Clear Sky displays this little-known, but fascinating nugget of Civil War history QA the first Confederate military raid to cross the Mason-Dixon Line during the American Civil War, the capture of the thriving river-port community of Newburgh, Indiana. With the politically divided landscape of Civil War Kentucky and the steamboat economy of the Ohio River as its backdrop, the surprising events of July, 1862, build to an improbable climax.
In this story of deception, betrayal, murder, and revenge, Adam Johnson Kentucky legend, Texas hero, Confederate soldier conducts a traveling recruiting campaign through the hills of western Kentucky in the summer of 1862. Johnson's crowning effort, his foray onto Northern soil, has the unintended consequence of waking the sleeping giant. Indiana Governor Oliver Morton unleashes an overwhelming counter-offensive that seals the fate of western Kentucky for the remainder of the war.
A crafty Confederate officer boldly raids a small Indiana town in the early stages of the Civil War. With any epic conflict like the Civil War, there are bound to be countless small stories that get lost. Here, Mulesky rescues one such tale from obscurity. Adam Johnson, better known as "Stovepipe," was a southern rascal seemingly destined to be a thorn in the side of the North. What he lacked in troops and equipment he made up for in guts and guile. Though of minimal military significance, the raid on Newburgh has all of the components of an absorbing story: intrigue, betrayal, revenge and a wily, charismatic (anti-) hero in Johnson. Following the brief narrative is an appendix of the major players, further information on the Newburgh residents who conspired with Johnson and a helpful timeline of events. Mulesky's account is deft, rendered in crisp prose.
—(Kirkus Discoveries)