To Kill A General: The Audacious Conspiracy to Assassinate Robert E. Lee

To Kill A General: The Audacious Conspiracy to Assassinate Robert E. Lee takes readers back to a major event in the history of the United States: the American Civil War. On December 14, 1862, Captain William Taylor Franklin has to make a tough choice during the battle of Fredericksburg: to eliminate Major Henry Jenks Matson, who insists on making a deadly move while facing an intense attack by the enemy, or lose a couple of hundred soldiers. Unfortunately, Franklin’s choice lands him in the Old Capital Prison with a high chance of meeting his end.

Eventually, Franklin receives an offer to be saved from the gallows, which entails a mission to assassinate General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate Army. On agreeing to go after General Lee, Franklin embarks on a wild mission that involves journeying in a young fisherman’s boat, seeking shelter in an animal shelter protected by a shotgun-wielding woman, disguising to fight in favor of the Confederate Army, fighting off aggressive and suspicious Confederate soldiers, and more. Join Franklin as he infiltrates the Army of Northern Virginia in this fast-paced, action-packed historical fiction that takes you through the heat and gore of a 19th-century battle.

Franklin’s disguise in the Army of Northern Virginia is depicted with a high level of realism and accompanied by a series of risky situations that could expose the protagonist’s identity. The book made me so nervous that the drop of a pin would have caused me to jump out of my seat in fear.

Prepare for some intense confrontations and fight scenes as the characters face each other with a ferocious display of will, strength, and enmity. The smoke-filled battle scenes add to the suspense and thrill of the narrative. “The soldiers anguished in an eerily silence that was only broken by the swirling of cannonballs above as they waited for the Federals to plow into their line.” Chris Bentley describes the battle with poetic and aesthetic language that makes the gruesome historical moment seem like a beautiful painting.

That empathetic humans like Abraham Lincoln and his followers could fight for the liberation of their fellow humans is proof that humanity can be saved from further oppression in today’s world. To Kill A General: The Audacious Conspiracy to Assassinate Robert E. Lee is a book I won’t be forgetting anytime soon as its suspenseful, action-loaded atmosphere is simply epic. I can see the story easily becoming an all-time classic as a novel or movie. Fans of historical, war-themed books are in for a serious thrill!