The Last Rebel

A historical novel written in the late 19th century. The book is set during a time when the memory of the American Civil War still looms over the characters and the landscape, particularly focusing on the remnants of the Confederacy. The narrative centers around Arthur West, a New Yorker who finds himself lost in the mountains of Kentucky and unwittingly entangled in the life of Colonel John Greene Hetherill, a fervent old soldier clinging to the ideals of the Confederacy. This tale of adventure and survival delves into themes of loyalty, conflict, and the price of old ideals in a changing world. At the start of the novel, Arthur West is wandering through the wilderness after losing his hunting party. Despite the beauty of the autumn landscape, he feels increasingly isolated and hungry, longing for human companionship. After a series of misadventures, he encounters Colonel Hetherill, who, believing West to be a potential spy, takes him to Fort Defiance. Throughout the beginning, the tension between West’s Northern heritage and Hetherill’s Southern loyalty plays out, revealing the colonel's conflicted nature and providing a backdrop for West’s growing curiosity about the colonel’s daughter, Grace. As the plot unfolds, the reader is thrust into a world of old and new loyalties, culminating in a court-martial that promises to change the lives of all involved.