The first ever book, now an audiobook, about the uniquely interesting life and times of Union General BF Kelley—Brevet Major General of Volunteers—US Civil War.

Civil War General—B.F. Kelley is the newly released biography of Union Major General B.F. Kelley, written and narrated by the general’s great, great, great grandson T. F. Kelley. General Kelley served as a command officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War from then Colonel Kelley's planning and leading the first land battle of the Civil War at Philippi, then Virginia, in June of 1861—to the Civil War's end in 1865.

Any number of Civil War firsts are attributable to General Kelley:

1. His family’s "borrowed" servant, a beautiful young Black slave named Sarah Lucy Bagby, would become the "last fugitive slave" to have escaped only to be returned south from free Ohio to Kelley’s slaveholding in-laws in Virginia under the Fugitive Slave Act. This was just prior to the breaking out of Civil War.
2. Kelley planned and led the first successful land battle of the Civil War
3. He was the first American to use the railroad to move warring troops and materials
4. He was the first Union officer wounded in the Civil War when wounds were initially thought to be fatal
5. He commanded the first loyal Southern regiment
6. Generals Kelley and Crook were kidnapped by Rebel Raiders toward the end of the war and brought to Richmond, only to be freed by General Lee

When I first told a Wheeling, West Virginia, Civil War Roundtable friend of my newborn son’s name, Jackson, she recoiled. No...not Jackson. Of course she was thinking of General "Stonewall" Jackson. Even though the Civil War ended some 160 years ago she was in fact disturbed and had been noticeably startled by my proclamation. Yes...Jackson. I thought it a great name for a beautiful, strong young lad. Besides...the Civil War seems so very long ago, albeit apparently recent enough to generate a palpable gasp from her!