The Black Flower

Winner of the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the William Young Boyd Award from the Naval War College Office for Best Military Novel

Nominated for the Sue Kaufman First Fiction Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Lincoln Prize from Gettysburg College, the LSU Michael Shaara Award for Civil War First Fiction, and the Stephen Crane Award from the Book-of-the-Month Club

The Black Flower is the gripping story of a young Confederate rifleman from Mississippi named Bushrod Carter, who serves in General John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee during the Civil War battle that takes place in Franklin, Tennessee, in November 1864. Written with reverent attention to historical accuracy, the novel vividly documents the fear, suffering, and intense friendships that defined this battle and during its aftermath.

When Bushrod is wounded in the Confederate charge, he is taken to a makeshift hospital where he comes under the care of Anna, who has already lost two potential romances to battle. Bushrod and Anna's poignant attempt to forge a bond of common humanity in the midst of the pathos and horror of war serves as a powerful reminder that the most divided years of America's past will not vanish quietly into the page of history.

Praise

"I recommend [this book] highly."—Shelby Foote, author of The Civil War Trilogy

"Writing with eloquence and humanity, Howard Bahr casts a tale of war as powerful as any you'll ever find."—Southern Lights

"I finished it in one long draught, thinking as I read of Crane, Hemingway, Mailer, and Faulkner . . . but realizing at the end that it was altogether original."—Ernest B. Furgurson, author of Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War

About the Author(s)

Howard Bahr

Howard Bahr was born in Meridian, Mississippi. From 1982 to 1993 he was curator of Rowan Oak, the William Faulkner homestead and museum in Oxford, Mississippi. Since 1993 he has taught English at Motlow State Community College in Tullahoma, Tennessee. He is also the author of the novel The Year of the Jublio.