Thunder From a Clear Sky

Thunder From a Clear Sky: Stovepipe Johnson’s Raid on Newburgh, Indiana

Om December 6 the LCWRT will welcome Raymond Mulesky for the very first time. Ray Mulesky was born and raised in the bustling suburbs of Long Island, New York. He graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and took the opportunity to move to the Midwest in the 1980’s. Ray has since immersed himself in the fascinating Civil War history of Indiana and Kentucky.
Ray is a member of the Southwestern Indiana Civil War Round Table and specializes in the roles played by Indiana and Kentucky in the Civil War. He is now known as one of the nation’s experts on the 1862 Confederate Raid on Newburgh, Indiana, and is author of the 2006 release, Thunder from a Clear Sky: Stovepipe Johnson’s Confederate Raid on Newburgh, Indiana.
Ray is also co-author of the just released Kentuckians in Gray: Confederate Generals and Field Officers of the Bluegrass State. He is now working on his third book, tentatively titled, Your Son ‘til Death: The Civil War Letters of a Hoosier Volunteer. Ray lives in Evansville, Indiana, with his wife and son.

Available at amazon.com: Thunder from a Clear Sky

On July 18, 1862, an Indiana town of nearly 1,300 citizens, including almost 100 convalescing Union soldiers, was captured by a bold Confederate icon commanding only twenty-seven Kentucky rebels. The Confederate commander's name was Adam Rankin Johnson and the event was the first Confederate raid north of the Mason-Dixon Line in the American Civil War.
In this story of deception, betrayal, murder, and revenge, Adam Rankin Johnson - Kentucky legend, Texas hero, Confederate raider - conducts a traveling recruiting campaign through the hills of western Kentucky in the summer of 1862. Johnson's crowning effort, his foray onto Northern soil at Newburgh, has the unintended consequence of waking the sleeping giant.

November 2008 Quiz Answers:

1. What full general was disgruntled because he thought his U.S. Army rank should have transferred to the Confederate army, thus making him the senior general instead of the fourth in seniority?

Virginia born Joseph Eggleston Johnston.

2. What civilian was the first female casualty of all-out battle?

Mrs. Judith Henry, hit by a shell on July 21, 1861 at the battle of First Manassas or Bull Run.

3.What state provided the Union army with only about five hundred fighting men, who served in the Second Massachusetts?

California

4. What was the longest uninterrupted campaign of the entire Civil War conflict?

The Petersburg, Virginia, campaign, June 15, 1864 --- April 3, 1865.

5. What was the "white gold" the Confederate leaders hoped to use as a diplomatic bargaining tool with European Governments?

Cotton, but supplies from Egypt, India and Brazil soon replaced that from the Deep South in foreign markets.


December 2008 Quiz:

1. What small girl is generally credited with having persuaded Abraham Lincoln to grow a beard?
2. What Mexican War general and future president made futile objections to his daughter's marriage to Jefferson Davis?

3. After the election of 1864, the membership of what political group jumped by 70 percent?

4. What holder of high office was described by HARPER'S WEEKLY in December 1861 as being honest and shrewd but not a great leader?

5. What West Pointer, 21st of 39 in the class of 1843, was a better than passable artist, specializing in horses?