Leftover Soldiers: Life on the Western Frontier

Leftover Soldiers, Life on the Western Frontier, has received four American book awards including first place in the NIEA Western Fiction Book 2019 Award. The last battle of the Civil War was fought near Brownsville, Texas. After the surrender, hundreds of ex-soldiers from both sides were left without families, homes or any place to go. This is the story of four of those men and their search for a new life in the open land of the American West. In 1865, the frontier was a wild place, a home for many Indian tribes, outlaws, buffalo and wild cattle. They find work as buffalo runners in one of the first hide companies to work in the Texas Panhandle and on one of the first big longhorn drives from Texas to Cheyenne. Leftover Soldiers is a raw, unvarnished look at life in the post Civil War West. Fighting Indians, outlaws, the weather and lingering prejudice, the soldiers carve out a future for themselves out of the rough, wide open land. Leftover Soldiers was shortlisted for the Chanticleer/Laramie book award, and won second place in the CIPA EVVY award for western fiction.