JOHN KENZIE McLANE: Massacre Survivor, U.S. Soldier

Astonishing answers to unspoken questions revealed!

STORY DESCRIPTION: The chassis of this novel is the true story of the life of John Kenzie McLane, the protagonist. In 1840, at age nineteen, he was the sole survivor of a Creek Indian attack on his family. In the fight, McLane killed the son of the tribe's chief. In the U. S. Army, in his early twenties, he participated in the Second Seminole Indian War, and was later drafted, when he was forty-three into the Confederate Army. He fought in the war between the North and the South as an infantryman for causes he didn't believe in. John K McLane served with General Robert E. Lee during the seige of Pittsburg and in the long, bitter retreat towards Appomattox, where Lee surrendered to Grant. However, McLane didn't surrender there, but surrendered later when the war was completely over. His life experience included watching Florida change from primitive times, when control and ownership of the land was contested by Indians, through the early nineteenth century. His life spanned the time when his native homeland was a U. S. territory, a state of the U. S., a republic, a state of the Confederacy, and a state of the Union again--under several flags which have flown over Florida. It is also the story of a pioneer family, its joys, sorrows, and fears---and of its intelligent, fair-minded, and courageous women.