I am a man with sorrows behind me, and battles, too. I have regrets of which I seldom speak, nor too often think. For me, danger became a way of life-an accepted facet in the natural order of things. There is no bravado in wearing a gun-it was, at the time, a necessity of life. A man could no more survive without a weapon than he could live without a horse or food. I was fourteen years old when they attacked me under cover of darkness and while I was in my own home. The only weapon I owned was a big, double-barreled eight-gauge shotgun that we used for small game and varmints; so, the night they came I killed my first two men with a borrowed pistol. That started my crusade. My search for justice, or maybe it was only for justification, led to more men joining the first two. Soon after, I began to acquire an unwanted and I felt, undeserved reputation as a gunman. I did not want to shoot people-except one, I truly wanted to shoot him. But the others kept coming for me and I had wrongs to right. In the end, I hunted them.

Following the Civil War, our re-united nation was booming; a railroad had stitched it together and men of all kinds flooded west by the thousands. Among them, boys in blue who had dreamed of homesteading, and boys in gray escaping the South's postwar anarchy. The West was wild-just the place for a generation of restless young men who had survived the most bitter war in the country's history. It was a place where a man might lose himself, and some did. When a man went west, he went with a clean slate. In this unrestrained setting, Exempt From Fear continues Nick Wright's fictional saga of his great-grandfather, Timothy Barnes as he leads a handful of dedicated men from his former CSA Ranger command in confrontations not only with enemies from their past, but with newly discovered foes as well. The only failure to mar their wartime record has returned to haunt them. Once again, they must join forces to protect their friends and the fascinating group of women to whom they were attracted from villains seeking easy money and others seeking revenge. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder throughout the War and survived. They believed in standing tall in the face of trouble, in being their own man, and to never let down a friend. These men were not trouble hunters, but when faced with it, they knew what to do.

Barnes is the third in a series of books depicting the fictional life of Timothy John Barnes. Many of the same characters from Spirits Remembered and Dust, Sweat, and Blood return in Barnes. The American Civil War is well into its second year and the Rangers continue to clash with U.S. Grant's vast Federal Army in Western Tennessee.

Tim stood and used his hat to slap raindrops from his clothes as he looked about the massive encampment. The rain had stopped but a slight mist filled the air. Everything was wet and puddles formed randomly across the area. There were tents as far as he could see through the trees and across the fields where others that couldn

Dust, Sweat, and Blood is the second in a series of books by Nick Wright fictionalizing a biography of his great-grandfather, Timothy John Barnes, who 'rode with Forrest'. It begins where his first book, Spirits Remembered ended-after the bitterly contested battle at Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas. The story follows Barnes and the remnants of three experimental companies formed by the Texas legend, General Benjamin McCulloch, before his death on the first day at Pea Ridge, or as some call it, the battle at Elk Horn Tavern. The few remaining Scouts and Raiders unite with the Rangers under Barnes' leadership forming the nucleus of a band of ordinary men called upon to perform extraordinary tasks. They make their way out of the Ozark Mountains, across Arkansas, and into the northern Mississippi railroad town of Corinth where they join with Nathan Bedford Forrest. Soon they become involved in the fighting at Shiloh Meeting House and assisting Forrest's coverage of the Confederate Army's withdrawal. Following the devastation at Shiloh, Forrest places Barnes and the Rangers on special assignment in western Tennessee, where there adventures continue.

I am a man with sorrows behind me, and battles, too. I have regrets of which I seldom speak, nor too often think. For me, danger became a way of life-an accepted facet in the natural order of things. There is no bravado in wearing a gun-it was, at the time, a necessity of life. A man could no more survive without a weapon than he could live without a horse or food. I was fourteen years old when they attacked me under cover of darkness and while I was in my own home. The only weapon I owned was a big, double-barreled eight-gauge shotgun that we used for small game and varmints; so, the night they came I killed my first two men with a borrowed pistol. That started my crusade. My search for justice, or maybe it was only for justification, led to more men joining the first two. Soon after, I began to acquire an unwanted and I felt, undeserved reputation as a gunman. I did not want to shoot people-except one, I truly wanted to shoot him. But the others kept coming for me and I had wrongs to right. In the end, I hunted them.

Following the Civil War, our re-united nation was booming; a railroad had stitched it together and men of all kinds flooded west by the thousands. Among them, boys in blue who had dreamed of homesteading, and boys in gray escaping the South's postwar anarchy. The West was wild-just the place for a generation of restless young men who had survived the most bitter war in the country's history. It was a place where a man might lose himself, and some did. When a man went west, he went with a clean slate. In this unrestrained setting, Exempt From Fear continues Nick Wright's fictional saga of his great-grandfather, Timothy Barnes as he leads a handful of dedicated men from his former CSA Ranger command in confrontations not only with enemies from their past, but with newly discovered foes as well. The only failure to mar their wartime record has returned to haunt them. Once again, they must join forces to protect their friends and the fascinating group of women to whom they were attracted from villains seeking easy money and others seeking revenge. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder throughout the War and survived. They believed in standing tall in the face of trouble, in being their own man, and to never let down a friend. These men were not trouble hunters, but when faced with it, they knew what to do.

Barnes is the third in a series of books depicting the fictional life of Timothy John Barnes. Many of the same characters from Spirits Remembered and Dust, Sweat, and Blood return in Barnes. The American Civil War is well into its second year and the Rangers continue to clash with U.S. Grant's vast Federal Army in Western Tennessee.

Dust, Sweat, and Blood is the second in a series of books by Nick Wright fictionalizing a biography of his great-grandfather, Timothy John Barnes, who 'rode with Forrest'. It begins where his first book, Spirits Remembered ended-after the bitterly contested battle at Pea Ridge in northwest Arkansas. The story follows Barnes and the remnants of three experimental companies formed by the Texas legend, General Benjamin McCulloch, before his death on the first day at Pea Ridge, or as some call it, the battle at Elk Horn Tavern. The few remaining Scouts and Raiders unite with the Rangers under Barnes' leadership forming the nucleus of a band of ordinary men called upon to perform extraordinary tasks. They make their way out of the Ozark Mountains, across Arkansas, and into the northern Mississippi railroad town of Corinth where they join with Nathan Bedford Forrest. Soon they become involved in the fighting at Shiloh Meeting House and assisting Forrest's coverage of the Confederate Army's withdrawal. Following the devastation at Shiloh, Forrest places Barnes and the Rangers on special assignment in western Tennessee, where there adventures continue.