MWSA Review
The Cotillion Brigade by Glen Graney is a historical fiction novel about the Civil War, based on two people who came to prominence during the war. The book begins in 1856, well before the war starts, but during the time when political unrest was seething. Readers will recognize, in the dialogue and actions of the main characters, many of the issues that led to the secession of eleven Southern states. The author concurrently develops the two main characters, whose fate is intertwined at a critical point in history, April 1865. 

Nannie is a frivolous self-centered Southern girl, intent on catching a husband. Hugh LaGrange is a Wisconsin farmer who has been manipulated into becoming a reluctant abolitionist. Time elapses and events unfold to reveal how Nannie Colquitt becomes a mature, gracious, and intelligent woman who forms a “brigade” of Southern women intent on defending their homes, since all able-bodied men of their town have enlisted or been conscripted. Meanwhile Hugh is mentored to become an intellectual and fearless cavalry officer … fearless, that is, until faced by Nannie’s company of women who are disciplined, trained, and drilled.

The Civil War produced great examples of perseverance and sacrifice as well as examples of greed and excess, with both ends of the spectrum explored in the book. The simultaneous development of a Northerner and a Southerner allowed for two diametrically opposed point-of-view characters to demonstrate the nuances of the two divergent political views, allowing for an even-handed treatment of the war. Evidence of meticulous research abounded. 

The style of writing, using expressions, vocabulary, and sentence structure consistent with the era, allows the reader to enter a slower paced world. I occasionally had to look up unfamiliar or archaic words. If anything, this enhanced the read, allowing me to read more contemplatively. In addition, the written word allows readers to envision events, entering the creative endeavor alongside the author. Of note, I found that the scene with the train bringing the wounded to LaGrange, Georgia, to be more powerful than a similar movie scene in Gone with the Wind.  It is historical fiction at its best: solid research combined with great storytelling. 

Review by Betsy Beard

 

Author's Synopsis
Georgia burns. Sherman’s Yankees are closing in. Will the women of LaGrange run or fight? Based on the true story of the celebrated Nancy Hart Rifles, The Cotillion Brigade is a sweeping epic of the Civil War’s ravages on family and love, the resilient bonds of sisterhood amid devastation, and the miracle of reconciliation between bitter enemies.

1856. Sixteen-year-old Nannie Colquitt Hill makes her debut in the antebellum society of the Chattahoochee River plantations. A thousand miles to the north, a Wisconsin farm boy, Hugh LaGrange, joins an Abolitionist crusade to ban slavery in Bleeding Kansas. Five years later, secession and total war against the homefronts of Dixie hurl them toward a confrontation unrivaled in American history.

Nannie defies the traditions of Southern gentility by forming a women’s militia and drilling it four long years to prepare for battle. With their men dead, wounded, or retreating with the Confederate armies, only Captain Nannie and her Fighting Nancies stand between their beloved homes and the Yankee torches.

Hardened into a slashing Union cavalry colonel, Hugh duels Rebel generals Joseph Wheeler and Nathan Bedford Forrest across Tennessee and Alabama. As the war churns to a bloody climax, he is ordered to drive a burning stake deep into the heart of the Confederacy. 

Yet one Georgia town—which by mocking coincidence bears Hugh’s last name—stands defiant in his path. Read the remarkable story of the Southern women who formed America’s most famous female militia and the Union officer whose life they changed forever.

ISBN/ASIN: 9780996154116, 9780996154123, B08XJ4Z3DM

Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook, Audiobook

Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction

Number of Pages: 399