Smoking Springs

“Ain’t gonna die,” Judah Ward repeats over and over. The surgeons want to amputate his festering, wounded foot. He’s been shot in the shoulder by one of his own officers. Then too, his skull is ravaged by shrapnel. Frostbite and sheer exhaustion plague even the healthiest of these Confederate soldiers after their invasion of New Mexico Territory has been ingloriously halted at Glorieta Pass and they forge a hasty retreat out of this rugged wilderness. 

“Ain’t going back to Texas,” Judah also often asserts. “Hate you, Pa—your God, too,” he bitterly proclaims. But for the tenacity of his cousin, Sam Houston McCoy; the affection of Ramona, a kind-hearted Mexican girl and her trader uncle; the help of Bones, a semi-free slave; help and protection from some fellow Confederate deserters and a troop of compassionate, Union spies; and especially for the aid and wisdom of an outcast, Apache woman he names Red Bear who uses the healing of a steamy, mineral spring, and other indigenous remedies, Judah wouldn’t survive. 

Fleeing his mountain sanctuary, now all alone, his body is on the mend. But, what about his confused mind and tormented soul?