Ronald Gaffney

Thunderclap Ronald Gaffney

"THUNDERCLAP: The Coming Struggle for Acadia" is a fictional tale set during King George's War in America (an offshoot of the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe, 1740 - 1748) and its aftermath. It tells the story of how two military officers - one who is French and one British- are caught up in events leading to the so-called French and Indian War in the theatre of Acadia, 1755-1763. The French officer, a Lieutenant André, finds himself serving in the increasingly desperate effort to oust the British once and for all from their decades-old conquest of Nova Scotia (1710). The British officer, a Captain Bradford, fresh from serving in the suppression of the Scottish Rising (1745-1746), arrives in the midst of the war waged by France and its First Nation or 'Indian' allies against the British in Nova Scotia. He finds himself assisting the new British governor, Edward Cornwallis, with establishing an English `beachhead` settlement called "Halifax" and expanding British control over the restless French Acadian population through the construction of a series of forts in and around existing Acadian communities. While the careers of the two officers follow parallel yet separate courses during King George's War, they inevitably cross paths and both participate in the cataclysmic clash known as the French and Indian War (1755-1763)-a final conflict which saw the Expulsion of much of the Acadian population from Nova Scotia and a determination of which European power- France or Great Britain- would ultimately emerge supreme on the battlefields of North America. A prequel to my novel "Fire Over Acadia", this new tale introduces readers to the "backstory" for several of my primary characters, and completes a trilogy of tales about the colonial wars impacting Nova Scotia.