An Undivided Union
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Adams, William Taylor. [As Oliver Optic] An Undivided Union. Completed by Edward Stratemeyer. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1899. [The Blue and the Gray -- On Land] Out of print.
Union Kentucky cavalrymen Major Deck Lyon and his cousin Artie engage Confederate guerillas and participate in the major campaigns of the year 1864 in Tennessee.
"The outline and incomplete material of An Undivided Union were left among the papers of the late William T. Adams ('Oliver Optic') . . . Mr. Edward Stratemeyer, author of the remarkably popular 'Old Glory' series, based upon the Spanish-American war, undertook the task of picking up the threads of the narrative." (v) The result bears very little resemblance to Adams's earlier Civil War novels, which are talky things that draw a lot of their interest from intrigue, espionage, and double agency. By contrast, Stratemeyer's 482 pages are almost all combat action, and all the duller for their hyperactivity.