In the Prologue in 1778, a young teenager, Bruce Jenkins, travels to Valley Forge to enlist in the Colonial Army. He finds an army lacking supplies, lacking discipline, and lacking much enthusiasm. Desertions are weakening the army, and hunger is turning many of the men into scavengers and thieves. New orders come from Washington’s Headquarters that deserters and thieves will be shot. Starving and in great pain, Bruce goes hunting food in a nearby farm and is killed. His body is buried on the farm. The theme of the Chicken Thief Soldier, a theme of courage and strength and the dedication of youth, is a strong one, and it is a recurring theme throughout the book. In 1960, during the Thanksgiving holiday, Drew Benson and his parents are driving through Valley Forge Park during a bad storm. There is an accident, and both his parents are killed. Bruce is taken in by the Collier family, their son Shane being Drew’s best friend. Bruce has recurring nightmares about the accident. Shane tries to help, and then a coach at George Washington Junior-Senior High School, Homer Matthews, persuades Drew to go out for junior high football. He also persuades Drew to begin a conditioning program in the mornings before school. At first, Drew is painfully inept, but gradually he acquires the strength and confidence to become a good runner. A gifted history teacher, Professor JJ, introduces Drew to Ben Franklin, and Drew plans the famous kite experiment as his class project. On a bad-weather day, the kite reenactment gets out of control, injures Professor JJ, and makes Drew a permanent enemy of the class bully, Frank West, Jr., the principal’s son. Because of this, the principal begins to detest Drew. Drew becomes entangled in a complicated romance with May Wiggins, who prefers the more stronger and athletic Shane. Drew survives this problem, and he and Shane still remain friends. Drew eventually meets Joyce Thompson, and they become close friends. The principal, Mr. Frank West, Sr., shows his hostility when Drew is brought to the office for fighting with Frank, Jr. Drew is paddled severely, and the punishment only stops when Coach Matthews enters the office. There are more complications in school, some brutal, some humorous, some romantic, but Drew and Shane handle them together. There are cut-days and trips to Philadelphia, summer weeks at the Jersey Shore, log cabin sleep-outs at Valley Forge Park, and a major trophy buck hunt on protected Park grounds. There is also the suicide attempt at the Memorial Arch when Jackson, a Korean War veteran, tries to hang himself. Drew and Shane show their character and strength as they progress from one challenging incident to another. Upon graduation from George Washington High School, Shane enlists in the Army and goes to fight in Vietnam. As his mother had wished, Drew goes to college to study to become a teacher. At the end of four years, he enlists in the Army and joins Shane in Vietnam. In 1975 George Washington High School is demolished and a newer, bigger Valley Forge High School is built in its place. At this time Drew returns to Valley Forge with a Vietnamese wife and child. Shane comes back in a coma and is admitted to Valley Forge Veterans Hospital, which is across the street from the school. The war years are covered by flashbacks, and the circumstances of what happened to Shane and Drew in Vietnam are explained and clarified. It is a gradual process of discovery, both comical and tragic. Drew returns to Valley Forge with a Vietnamese wife and child. Homer Matthews, now the assistant principal, invites Drew to substitute teach at Valley Forge. Both the principal, Frank West, Sr., and Coach Chuck confront Drew immediately and warm him about causing trouble. The principal just plain hates Drew, and Coach Chuck is worried that Drew might interfere with his football team, which is enjoying an undefeated season. The championship game is scheduled for Fri

Hartslog Valley, the Shadow of Death region, in Central Pennsylvania is haunted by a history of violence. The horrific Dean Massacre occurred there in 1788. Just south of Harstlog in Woodcock Valley, a band of fifty Indians and two white collaborators tortured and murdered ten of Captain Phillips Rangers in 1780. In 1754, Captain Jack returned home from hunting and found his wife and two children slain by Indians. Seeking revenge, he scoured the wilderness. The expert tracker and hunter left a bloody trail of scalps strung from the trees and Indian lodges of his enemy. Now two hundred years later, the violence continues. Skeletons are found wired to a tree on Blood Mountain. Hostages are taken in a Mennonite school, resulting in the death of a boy. Two girls are kidnapped from Twin River High School. Hartslog Valley is again thrown into chaos. When local authorities are ineffective, enter the vigilante. Following the tradition of Charles Bronson in Death Wish, Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, and Sylvester Stallone in Rambo, Vietnam War veteran and Twin River High School custodian Gene Brooks vows to protect the students. Twin River sophomores, Conner Brooks and Matt Henry, are caught in the turmoil. Harassed by the chief of police, community thugs, and school bullies, the boys fight to survive in the modern wilderness of Hartslog Valley.

Vol. 83 contains final report of the finances from 1949 to the closing of the organization in 1956.

More than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, scores of websites, articles, and organizations repeat claims that anywhere between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans fought willingly as soldiers in the Confederate army. But as Kevin M. Levin argues in this carefully researched book, such claims would have shocked anyone who served in the army during the war itself. Levin explains that imprecise contemporary accounts, poorly understood primary-source material, and other misrepresentations helped fuel the rise of the black Confederate myth. Moreover, Levin shows that belief in the existence of black Confederate soldiers largely originated in the 1970s, a period that witnessed both a significant shift in how Americans remembered the Civil War and a rising backlash against African Americans' gains in civil rights and other realms. Levin also investigates the roles that African Americans actually performed in the Confederate army, including personal body servants and forced laborers. He demonstrates that regardless of the dangers these men faced in camp, on the march, and on the battlefield, their legal status remained unchanged. Even long after the guns fell silent, Confederate veterans and other writers remembered these men as former slaves and not as soldiers, an important reminder that how the war is remembered often runs counter to history.

Set in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania, “One Grey Night It Happened” recognizes the natural beauty and rich cultural heritage of Pennsylvania’s wilderness region. Running from a notorious mountain clan, a young and defiant Jeremiah Willis departs Arrowhead Mountain and enrolls in Bloomington High School. A black transfer student and gifted athlete, Lucas Bradshaw, enrolls that same morning. The day before he enrolled, Lucas witnessed a school massacre in his Virginia school, Robert E Lee Academy, and now is the target of a massive manhunt. Sparks fly when Jeremiah and Lucas meet. They form an unlikely alliance and become allies in the fight against bullies, racists, and corrupt officials. The boys share a deep reverence for nature. When developers plan a million-dollar Dream House on Arrowhead Mountain, Jeremiah and Lucas work together to protect the forests. Suspense mounts at a torrid pace. Either tragedy or triumph awaits Jeremiah and Lucas.

The final book in the Twin River series, C U When U Get There, takes the reader on a perilous journey. Resurrected in the violent predator-prey ethos of Death Valley, Cain Towers leaves a trail of terror and death as he plans his return to Twin River. Accompanied by his Uncle Abel Towers, Cain will wage war with Vietnam veteran Gene Brooks for the heart and soul of the Twin River community. As Cain and Abel focus on their victims, vulnerable teenagers Stanley Banks, Niles Wilson, and Amber Crawford face a life-and-death struggle to get therea place of safety and love and family.

"My name is Palladin, as in pallbearer." Learning the skill of killing from his father at an early age, Wesley Palladin, Have Weapons Will Travel, reaches the highest level of his profession as an assassin for the mob in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Palladin mishandles a contract and exiles himself to Twin River, where he takes a bank security job and also becomes the mentor to fourteen-year-old Matt Henry, a very troubled, violent teenager. Matt is challenged to overcome the tragedy of abuse in his past, deny his quest for revenge, and find hope in the dark, foreboding Shadows of Death that cloak Blood Mountain. Riveting and deadly action originates in Chinatown, the Italian Market, and Bryn Mahr in Philadelphia and relocates ominously to the Twin River farmlands and mountains in Central Pennsylvania. Beset by kidnappings, wild hog attacks, extreme bullying, and unchecked brutality in a juvenile institution, violence prevails in the small mountain community. As the body count rises, unlikely contributions from Holden Caulfield and comedian Bob Hope bring a resolution that is fearsome, unexpected, and also triumphant.