Confederate Winter is historical fiction based on a true family story backed up by an affidavit in the Confederate archives in Montgomery, Alabama. The author's great, great, great grandfather, William Sweeney, fought as a Confederate soldier at the tender age of 14. His father, John, had been drafted the year before into the Union Army. Confederate Winter is their story. By 1864 the Confederacy is on the verge of defeat. Atlanta has fallen and Confederate General John Bell Hood's army is in retreat. Hood formulates a bold plan to re-capture Nashville, the great base for the Union army in the West. A victory could change the course of the war. Hood needs manpower, however, and sends his conscription parties out to scour the countryside. Confederate Winter tells the story of a true-life family caught up in this grand adventure. The Federals conscript John Sweeney, the father, in late 1863 as General Sherman prepares his march on Atlanta and the sea. His son William is left in charge of the family farm, until one early fall morning...