[ Previous ] [ Next ]

[published by Bantam Books; 1971]

Toil of the Brave reads more like a Civil War novel which has been transplanted back in time than a RevWar novel. While the Revolution was very much a civil war -- American vs. American, brother vs. brother, etc. -- it is seldom looked at that way in fiction. Fletcher takes a cast of characters from rural South Carolina, and lets the war sweep over them and change their lives.

Spanish-born Angela Ferrier tries to remain emotionally uninvolved in the war but ends up thoroughly involved with both British Captain Anthony Allison -- who arrives in the south ahead of his countrymen as a spy -- and rebel Peter Huntley. The story follows their tangled lives through 1779-80, and reaches its climax at the battle of King's Mountain.

Banastre Tarleton plays a small role in the later part of the book, surprisingly innocuous for him. He gets called a devil -- and a swashbuckler and a dandy -- but the only thing he actually gets to threaten on-screen is Anthony's relationship with his mistress. (The author doesn't seem to like Ban, but she does give him his proper effect on the ladies.) Patrick Ferguson has a larger role than Tarleton and is presented as a charming, likeable man, though the details of the battle and his death -- even the identity of the young woman buried with him -- are thoroughly fictionalized.