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MWSA Review
Northern Wolf is the story of Johannes Wolf, a young German immigrant with a crippled leg, who cons his way into the disorganized Union Army in 1862. The opening scene takes place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as Wolf gets into a barroom brawl. After cooling off in a jail cell he joins the fictional 13th Michigan Volunteer Calvary.
Author Daniel Greene takes Wolf and his unit through the rigors of training and primitive camp conditions before experiencing battle under the leadership of a courageous George Armstrong Custer, "the boy general." There have been multiple depictions of Custer in American literature. In Northern Wolf he is the warrior commander who leads from the front.
The realistic battle scenes are set in the Eastern Calvary Fields, long considered a sideshow to the Battle of Gettysburg. In the historical notes that Greene provides, he argues that this battle was, in fact, crucial in producing a Union victory. Custer's foe is the infamous Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart who unsuccessfully tried to breach the rear of the Union line.
By portraying Wolf and other characters in the story as immigrants, Greene emphasizes that the war was not a uniquely American experience but much more global. Approximately 500,000 immigrants fought for the North and thousands more for the South.
The mixture of fact and fiction makes Northern Wolf a worthwhile addition to the many historical novels that have been written about this era. Greene is a veteran researcher and writer who promises that this is the first in a series.
Review by James Elsener (April 2023)
Author's Synopsis
A broken man will be forged in the flames of war...
It is late 1862, and the United States has been ripped apart by civil war for over a year with no end in sight. The war is a distant thought to Johannes Wolf, a young German immigrant with a crippled leg keeping him off the muster lists.
Desperately dredging the gutters for recruits, Wolf cons his way into the depleted, demoralized, and poorly run Union army, and is promptly placed in the undesirable F Company of the 13th Michigan Cavalry.
Wolf's company find themselves riding with Custer and the Michigan Brigade on a collision course with master horseman J.E.B. Stuart and the Army of Northern Virginia in a small town in Pennsylvania, called Gettysburg.
Will they stand tall against the knights of the South and prove themselves worthy? Or will they fall beneath screaming bullets and sweeping blades, becoming more bloody fodder for a lost cause?
Format(s) for review: Kindle Only
Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 247
Word Count: 74,000