Chickamauga Dreaming: A Novel on the Civil War's Enduring Impact

The crucial battles at Chickamauga and Chattanooga in 1863 foreshadowed the Confederacy's surrender, and they left the Weston family divided, diminished, scattered, and emotionally scarred for more than a century. Well-hidden secrets and stunning misperceptions play major roles as the Civil War’s aftershocks rumble through five generations, finally reaching Ronayne and his son, Rob. When Rob refuses to emulate his father's fanatical and theatrical devotion to the family's wartime heritage, decades of conflict follow. The Civil Rights Movement’s sweep through the South complicates the relationship. Rob's sympathy for black aspirations jolts his father and fractures the family just as secession had 100 years earlier. Rob runs far away from his father and the South, but after a long and harrowing personal odyssey he is drawn back to his Chickamauga Battlefield roots. There he confronts his demons, counts his gains and losses, and contends with the Civil War's inextricable hold on his life.