A Spy Wears Two Hats

Philip C. Jackson

oct 2007 · Xlibris Corporation

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Fifteen year-old Tommy Miller is determined to stop Yankee General George McClellan—even if he has to kill the cruel Union leader. Tommy is taken captive by Union soldiers, escapes, and is recruited by Captain John Mosby to spy for the Confederacy. He agrees. He feels that is the fastest path to reach McClellan. Fearing for his life at every bend in the road, Tommy uses his innate ability as an actor to convince Union soldiers and leaders along the way that he is a Yankee. Conquering terror-filled nights, and slogging through unrelenting icy rain downpours, Tommy changes hats as he spies for the Confederacy. He saves a fellow teenaged soldier, Roger Pinkerton,—albeit a Yankee— amidst the battle on Malvern Hill. He then moves on to alert General Lee of McClellan’s overwhelming Yankee dominance in terms of numbers of troops geared up for battle on the banks of the James River. When Janey O’Reilly, Tommy’s girlfriend, is assaulted by passing Yankees close to home near Malvern Hill, Tommy sets out in search of the guilty party. But first he must switch hats, resuming his role as a Yankee private, before he can inflict his revenge. After switching hats again on his way east toward Sharpesburg and Harpers Ferry as a Union private, Tommy learns that General McClellan has been ordered to step down as Commander of the Army of the Potomac—Yankee General John Pope takes over command with President Lincoln’s sudden order. As battle erupts along Antietum Creek, between Sharpsburg and South Mountain, Tommy is torn between fighting as a union soldier or his true Confederate Rebel self. The Confederacy is the choice. Tommy Miller jumps across the Antietum Creek amid flying cannon balls, takes up his weapon and fires at Yankees. He sees, hears and smells too much death. He heeds the battle cry of fellow Confederates, to go along with General Robert E. Lee. After the battle, Tommy makes his way south toward Washington where he tries to contact President Lincoln but is rebuffed. Frustrated by Yankees unwilling to accept anything like a peace plan, he determines that a recipe for ending the War is essential. He meets with an inspired Roger Pinkerton and together they head north toward Delaware. Tommy and Roger decide that the best way to end this horrible War is to start a detective agency, like Roger’s uncle did before the War. They’ll call it The Miller Pinkerton Detective Bureau, go undercover and undermine War campaign efforts of both sides, spy where needed and end fighting among brothers and sisters—mothers and fathers

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For nine years, I rode race horses as a professional jockey at major race tracks throughout America. Forced to retire from race riding with the onset of Multiple Sclerosis at age thirty-two, I have been fortunate in pursuing my next love; the “not-so-physical” sport of writing. I won the New Mexico division of the Philip Morris Magazine National Essay Writing Contest in 1987. Published in American Voices, and spurred-on by the success of “Freedom Falling” therein, I have continued on the path to authorship with the completion of three novels. Since 1988 I have attended critique groups. A SPY WEARS TWO HATS is a historical-fiction young adult novel taking place in the summer of 1862.