A Southern Yarn

A Southern Yarn is a what-if scenario on the Civil War based on a trap Lee set for Grant on the North Anna River in May of 1864. Richards springs the trap which was never actually sprung and plays the war out to a different ending.

The book starts at the Battle of Spotsylvania with Grant attacking the salient. It traces through the remainder of that battle, then the march south to the North Anna River. Here Lee devises a trap by deploying his forces in an inverted V with the head against the river at Ox Ford. Grant was forced to divide his army into three separate depositions, two of which were south of the river. The actual history sees Lee falling violently ill with a severe stomach disorder. In the Yarn, Lee recovers in time to spring the trap destroying nearly half of the Army of the Potomac in the process. Lee then pursues the defeated Federals north until he forces their surrender on the banks of the Rappahannock River. Lee then moves north, captures Washington, D.C. and President Lincoln, leading to a negotiated peace in which the south gives up slavery in exchange for independence. It is the most unique Civil War novel in contemporary times.

Ron Richards is a 1969 graduate of the University of Maryland. He is married and the father of four children, and has taught Social Studies in Loudoun County, Virginia, for the last 31 years. He resides with his wife, Lacey, in Greene County, Virginia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains