Camp Ford: A Western Story [Hardcover]

Johnny D. Boggs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2005

A Spur Award-winning Author
A Western Heritage Award-winning Author

In his new novel, Boggs manages to deftly combine three American icons: the Old West, the Civil War, and baseball when it was only beginning to be the great American pastime. During the 1946 World Series, ninety-nine-year-old Win MacNaughton recalls the greatest baseball game of his entire life between a ragtag collection of Union prisoners of war against a squad of Confederate prison guards.

Johnny D. Boggs has written more than twenty short stories published in magazines and anthologies, including Louis L'Amour Western Magazine. He won the Western Heritage Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for his novel Spark on the Prairie (2003).

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In 1946 99-year-old Win McNaughton is an honored guest at a World Series game in St. Louis. He has spent a lifetime in and around baseball as a player, umpire, and manager. Asked by reporters to recount his baseball life, McNaughton focuses on his teenage years, when he joined the Union Army at 17 and became a prisoner of war at Camp Ford, the largest camp west of the Mississippi River. It was there that McNaughton helped organize a baseball game between the Union prisoners and their Confederate guards. The game, initially seen as an excuse to break the monotony of Camp Ford's dreary routine, soon becomes a mini-Civil War, as the Confederates, with their fortunes waning on the real battlefields, struggle to maintain dominance on the diamond. Boggs' carefully researched novel boasts meticulously drawn characters and captures in a striking way the amazing changes America underwent during the span of one man's life. An unusual, very rich western that should attract not only genre readers but also baseball fans and Civil War buffs. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"In 1946 99-year-old Win McNaughton is an honored guest at a World Series game in St. Louis. He has spent a lifetime in and around baseball as a player, umpire, and manager. Asked by reporters to recount his baseball life, McNaughton focuses on his teenage years, when he joined the Union Army at 17 and became a prisoner of war at Camp Ford, the largest camp west of the Mississippi River. It was there that McNaughton helped organize a baseball game between the Union prisoners and their Confederate guards. The game, initially seen as an excuse to break the monotony of Camp Ford?s dreary routine, soon becomes a mini-Civil War, as the Confederates, with their fortunes waning on the real battlefields, struggle to maintain dominance on the diamond. Boggs' carefully researched novel boasts meticulously drawn characters and captures in a striking way the amazing changes America underwent during the span of one man?s life. An unusual, very rich western that should attract not only genre readers but also baseball fans and Civil War buffs."
--Booklist, June 2005 (Booklist )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Five Star; 1 edition (June 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594141290
• ISBN-13: 978-1594141294
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,561,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A REMARKABLE CIVIL WAR STORY!!!, April 24, 2006

By 

Lester E Williams "Les" (Lincoln, Nebraska United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Camp Ford: A Western Story (Hardcover)

During the 1946 World Series, a 99 year old timer was asked to relate the tale of the greatest baseball game played in his life time. Thus begins the remarkable story of Winthrop( Win) MacNaughton. In 1858 Win's father Henry became more obsessed with his Abolitionist activities than baseball that he sells his drug store in Newport, Rhode Island and moves his family to Jacksboro, Texas. Henry purchases two slaves and sets them free. Eventually this act leads him to return to Rhode Island. Henry decides he can best serve his Abolishionist ideals by joining the Union Army.

Once again in Newport, Win goes back to his beloved baseball. He discovers the game has changed some what from the way he played it before leaving for Texas. Outside a small town in Pennsylvania, on July 3rd, 1863, Win's father is killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. This event will alter Win's life as he decides to follow in his fathers foot steps and join the Union Army.

Win enlists in the 3rd Rhode Island Calvary. His unit gets their first assignment of the war in the Red River Campaign. At the battle of Sabine Crossroads, Win and his comrades are routed and are sent fleeing. Winthrop is captured and begins the long march to Texas and Camp Ford. At the outskirts of the prison stackade, Win attemps to escape but is re-captured by Pig Oliver, a former baseball team mate from his early days in Texas.


Life in Camp Ford is difficult. Next to survival, escape occupies the thoughts of the prisoners in the harsh enviroment they find them selves in. One lesson learned early about an escape attempt. Becareful who you tell your plans to. The comrade who's life you save in battle may one day turn traitor and inform on you.

Win's CO, Captain Conall McGee comes up with a plan to divert the guards attention that may allow some prisoner a chance to escape. That is how a baseball game between Mr. Lincoln's Hirlings and the Righteous Club of Lieutenant Colonel Ruben Sweet's Texas Battalion of Guards, Confederate States of America came to be played. Winning the baseball game rather than escaping Camp Ford soon became paramount to the Union prisoners. The Rebel commander and his team will use every means at their disposal to see that Mr. Lincoln's Hirelings lose this game.

Johnny D. Boggs gives us a remarkable, well crafted and exciting story. CAMP FORD will appeal to baseball fans, Civil War buffs and western fans alike.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars War and baseball do mix, November 27, 2006

By 

Gerald R. Hibbs "gerbear" (Edmond, Oklahoma United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Camp Ford: A Western Story (Hardcover)

This is a very interesting book - a different kind of western. It takes place in Texas (mostly), in a Confederate prison camp during the Civil War. For the baseball adict it is an accurate picture of the early forms of the game. For the Civil War Buff it provides some interesting incite not connected to a major battle. It is about Prison life at its worst and baseball at its best. It is the tale of a most interesting baseball game as told by a 99 year old veteran of the war. An easy read but an engaging story.