When are you coming back, Nathaniel Starbuck?

For those who love Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe series and hanker for another character of the same vein (swashbuckling hero) in the same era (19^th century), he has another series of novels that is just the ticket.

The character in these novels is a Northerner from Massachusetts named Nathaniel Starbuck who, after being rescued from a malicious anti-Yankee mob in Richmond, Virginia by a wealthy plantation owner named Washington Faulconer, decides to cast his lot with the South since he has nothing much waiting for him at home except for a stern minister father and a stifling family life.  Nate ended up in the Virginia state capitol after an odyssey with an actress who had stolen money from the theater troupe she and Nate were in.

Nate’s adventures take him to First Manassas (aka Bull Run), Ball's Bluff, the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, Second Manassas (aka Bull Run), the siege of Harper’s Ferry and Antietam (aka Sharpsburg). Along the way, Starbuck meets the likes of historical figures such as Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson to Richard Sharpe’s son Patrick Lassan, a French cavalry officer over first as an observer of the Northern army, and then cheerfully crosses the lines to rid with J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry.

However, the novels currently span only four volumes: Rebel, Copperhead, Battle Flag, and The Bloody Ground.  Not because Nate’s adventures come to an end because he is killed in the bloodbath that took place beside Antietam Creek (though he is wounded), but because Cornwell decided to write more Sharpe novels. And so Nate is enjoying an extended vacation, as Cornwell puts it on his page about the novels.

It would behoove Mr. Cornwell if he gets back to Nathaniel Starbuck.  The Civil War 150^th is currently in full-swing, and a better time for Nate’s return could not possibly be imagined by Cornwell’s fans. Come back soon, Nate!

Article image courtesy Hennepin County Library.