Sir, My name is Richard Zigler. In your book Copperhead was a reference to a confederate soldier that was “treed” by Yankees and captured. We have an oral history of that being one Andrew Jackson Sigler, my great great grandfather. The spelling of last name was due to his wife after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the slaves taking the last name of their most recent owner in order to help identify themselves to help locate relatives. She supposedly declared that she’d have no (expletives deleted) burr headed n…..s named after her. She and their children all have the “Z” spelling on grave markers and in censuses there after.
Anyway, I was wondering where you came to that story. I was told that it appeared in Harpers Weekly, but I have no way to find out for sure. Could you possibly give me a clue as to where it could be found?
I have enjoyed the Saxon Tales, The Grail Quest series, the Nate Starbuck and especially the Sharpe’s series, all of which I have passed to my son for his reading pleasure.
Thank you for your time and your genius as a writer.
Richard A. Zigler