Bob Bonebrake

King of America: War Was Only Half the Battle Bob Bonebrake

Inthe early 1800s a beautiful, rebellious American teenager was seduced and laterabandoned by the spoiled, ambitious youngest brother of Napoleon I. Little didanyone realize at the time that the scandal, one of the most highly publicizedof the 19th Century, would set in motion a chain of events that a half-centurylater would threaten to change the future of the world."Kingof America" tells the forgotten story of how this scorned woman and heroffspring were pulled into a plot to turn the tide of the bloody American CivilWar. It posits how two sons of American privilege, Henry Adams, the grandson ofPresidents, and Cassius Clay, one of the most hated of Southern anti-slaveryabolitionists, join forces to foil the scheme. Thenovel combines the "coming of age" story of a 19th Century beauty's painfullessons in love and seduction, with the violent "buddy" adventure of twodiametrically different American patriots, who learn mutual respect whiletrying to foil the evil plot. It deals with the earliest days of the Civil War,when the brain trust behind the Confederate government realize their onlychance of winning secession is to secure the military support of a foreignally. France and its Emperor, Napoleon III, emerge as the best hope to extendaid and recognition, which is how a family of American Bonapartes are broughtinto the intrigue."Kingof America" provides a believable, well-researched scenario for how theConfederate offer was made and how it was foiled. Americans know the details ofthe Civil War, but "King of America" tells the story they don't know, theforeign intrigue and diplomacy that had as much to do with the outcome of thatwar as any battle.