About the Author

My story begins in the same area that the main character resided in. Only I was 60 miles away. I consider myself an amateur historian, and this story was personal to me.  I didn't study to be a journalist, or a writer of any sort. My background was in visual fields of art.  I began this project about 10 years ago. I wasn't actively writing on a regular basis, but gathering information, research along the way. About four years ago, I got serious about wanting to publish this story and joined a writer's group on the Central Coast of California in a town, San Luis Obispo. They called their group, The Night Writers. I learned a lot from that group. But it would be a few years later before the first manuscript was ready. I hope my background in the visual arts comes through in the text of the story. This is the only writing project I have undertaken, so far. I have a lot of other ideas.

When I started this project it was mostly in interest to answer a few questions about the 'legend'. I knew the main character, Henson, had joined the Nebraska 2nd Volunteers but knew nothing about the reason why. That revealed the Uprising in Minnesota, the 1200 men who volunteered with him and the books some of them wrote about their experiences. There are a lot of letters home that have been preserved also, but that amount of research was overwhelming. I discovered a lot of books written about the Uprising and most if not all were written by white authors.

I have visited the memorial to the Wiseman tragedy quite a few times in my life.  I've traveled to Yankton, South Dakota a lot also. I've been to Minnesota, but not to the sight of the Uprising. I was just out of high school and wasn't thinking about this at the time.  One of the things that struck me was the historical record of the entire 2nd Nebraska Volunteers. The last names are familiar to me and cause me to wonder if those were the ancestors of people I know. It is very likely.