501 (c) (3) Organization
Carry the Wind
1982
Bass/Paddock Trilogy
Terry C. Johnston (January 1, 1947 - March 25, 2001) was an American Western fiction author who wrote 31 novels and had more than 10 million books in print. Johnston is best known for two major works: a series of nine historical novels spanning the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade era and its eventual demise told through the eyes of the protagonist, Titus "Scratch" Bass. and a larger number of novels about the Indian wars of the West, the Plainsmen Series, following the conflicts through protagonist Seamus Donegan. Another series of books was based on a possibly true story of a relationship General Custer had with a Cheyenne girl.
Young Josiah Paddock, on the run from his past in St. Louis, didn't have much hope of survival. Winter was coming to the Rockies, and if the cold cutting through his city clothes didn't kill him, grizzlies or Indians would. Then his luck tumed. He stumbled across the trail of Ol' Scratch, a solitary mountain man eager enough for company to take the brash youngster under his wing. Pure chance brought Paddock to the old trapper's camp, but it was skill with a gun and a knife that kept them both alive as they rode deep into the majestic land of Blackfeet and Crow, bible-spouting pioneers and sensual woman where only the best and braves survived . . . and only the luckiest rode back again. Carry The Wind is a gripping historical saga set in the Grand Tetons during a time when the horizon never ended and a nation was being born.
The eagerly-awaited sequel to Carry The Wind, this is the second volume of Terry Johnston's award-winning saga of mountain men Josiah Paddock and Titus Bass, who here meet new challenges and new loves in the western wilderness of the 1830's.
Terry C. Johnston
Titles are listed in order of first publication and/or series. Series numbers are indicated in red.
Borderlords
1985
Bass/Paddock Trilogy
In the first volume of this saga of George Custer, the infamous general takes a lover among the Indians captured in his long winter campaign against the Cheyenne, risking marriage, reputation, and career for her.
One-Eyed Dream is the final volume in Terry C. Johnston's exciting trilogy of the rugged trappers and mountain men, Indian fighters, and hardy pioneers who battled for the future of this land--and won. High in the Rockies lay the Bayou Salade, a lush beaver-rich valley so untouched that the few white men who had seen it called it paradise. But for Scratch Bass, his young partner Josiah Paddock, and the two Indian women they loved, this paradise would open up a hell of violence. Pursued by a vengeful Arapaho raiding party, Scratch will lead his small band through a flurry of arrows all the way to Taos itself. Yet the trail of blood will not end there. For in St. Louis an old enemy waits, and the time is ripe for Scratch to settle a ten-year score. Through the desert known as the Journey of Death to the rough-and-tumble town of St. Louis, Scratch and Josiah will defy the wilderness to bury the past--and a blackhearted killer--once and for all.
Long Winter Gone
1990
Sons of the Plains (Custer)
One-Eyed Dream
1988
Bass/Paddock Trilogy
Few names of the American frontier resonate like that of George Armstrong Custer. His fiery temperament and grand vision led him to triumph in one season and tragedy in another. Now best-selling chronicler Terry C. Johnston beings to life the Custer legacy as never before in a masterful new trilogy . . . . For a youth of the Cheyenne in the years between Little Big horn and Wounded Knee, life was brutal and dangerous. For Yellow Bird, who saw his father, George Custer, die on a blood-soaked field in 1876, survival is especially difficult, for--despite his own white heritage--he must live in the Cheyenne world. And so he grew to manhood, bound to his father by their warrior's spirit, preparing to fight for his home, his wife, and his own son.
Never one to proceed cautiously when an impetuous move could win him glory, Custer marched his famed Seventh Calvary against the Sioux in June, 1876. He was thirty-six, already a mythic hero to some, with the possibility of a presidential nomination looming in his future; while to others he was an arrogant and dangerous fool, misguided in his determination to subjugate the Plains tribes. What should have been his greatest triumph became an utterly devastating defeat that would ring through the ages and serve as a turning point in the Indian Wars.
Whisper of the Wolf
1991
Sons of the Plains (Custer)
Seize the Sky
1991
Sons of the Plains (Custer)
Jonah Hook was a man who had lost everything a man could lose--but the iron will to reclaim what had been taken from him. Now he must confront the fiery religious heretic who has enslaved his wife and the fierce Comanche tribe who has raised his long-lost sons. From Fort Laramie, land of Sioux and Cheyenne, to the empire of the Mormons in the shadow of tall mountains, and on to the Texas panhandle, where he will join the ranks of the Texas Rangers, the journey ahead will test Jonah's courage, cunning, and endurance to the limit. On this bloody trail of rescue and revenge, nothing will stop him save success . . . or death.
Forced to serve as a Yankee after his capture at Pea Ridge, Confederate soldier Jonah Hook returns from the war to find his Missouri farm in shambles.
Winter Rain
1993
Jonas Hook
Cry of the Hawk
1992
Jonas Hook
Titus Bass drifts westward and is caught up in the powerful currents of the Mississippi River. From Louisville past the Chickasaw bluffs and the Natchez Trace all the way to New Orleans, he plunges into the rough-and-tumble life along the great river's banks: a volatile, violent country of riverboatmen and river bandits, knife fights and Indian raids, strong liquor and stronger women. But even as he works his way back upriver along the bustling wharves of St. Louis, Titus feels destiny beckoning him to plunge into an even wilder, more vast frontier. Beyond St. Louis stretches the lonely, unexplored expanse of the Great Plains, and it is here that Titus Bass will set his sights. Like America itself, Titus looks west and sees the future ... and he's willing to risk everything to seize it.
Ten years have passed since the close of the war that divided a nation and tore families asunder; a decade since battle-scarred Confederate soldier Jonah Hook returned to find his wife and children gone -- kidnapped by a man of unspeakable brutality. Since then he has brought his two sons home, one still at his side, the other to rest in peace. But the climactic leg of his long, hard journey is just about to begin.
Dance On the Wind
1995
Titus Bass
Dream Catcher
1994
Jonas Hook
Crack in the Sky continues the development of the young Titus Bass as he gradually learns the lore of the mountain man. From a raucous rendezvous of trappers to a searing fight with Comanche, from a frigid winter's chill to the angry heat of a chase with horse thieves, Titus Bass's West comes alive in the pages of this remarkable novel--and in its final scene, Titus Bass will meet young Josiah Paddock and form the deep friendship explored in the pagers of Carry the Wind.
TIn Buffalo Palace, the young Titus Bass sights, and then sets out into, the vast Rocky Mountain country, where he has his initial experiences with trapping beaver, surviving the freezing winter, fighting fierce Indians and even fiercer fellow mountain men, and celebrating at the hard-earned summer rendezvous. Most memorably, we walk with Titus as he first sees the immense herd which originally fueled his wanderlust, and now feeds, clothes and houses the frontier's pioneers, when he reaches the country lovingly called the "Buffalo Palace."
Crack In the Sky
1997
Titus Bass
Buffalo Palace
1996
Titus Bass
With the end of the beaver trade at hand, free trappers like Titus Bass must somehow make their way on a changing frontier. Drawn by the promise of adventure and wealth, Bass joins an expedition to Spanish California, where the ranchos have horses and mules in abundance. Their plan is to steal the livestock and drive it back east across the great Mojave Desert to sell to fur traders for top dollar. But pursuit by formidable Mexican soldiers and an attack by fierce Digger Indians take their toll on Bass and his fellow raiders.
Arriving back in the Rockies, the mountain man discovers that even the famous Jim Bridger has abandoned trapping and settled down to trade with overland immigrants plying the Oregon Trail. Wondering where his own trail will lead him, Bass journeys south for a reunion with an old friend in Taos-only to be caught up in the "Taos Rebellion." And in its tragic aftermath, Titus finds himself once again an outsider in a world he no longer recognizes.
The time of the mountain man is coming to an end...but some--like Titus Bass will not exit gently. A brilliantly exciting and thoroughly researched novel of the end of the dream that was the unmapped and virgin wilderness in the American West starring the king of the mountain men, Titus Bass.
Death Rattle
1999
Titus Bass
Ride the Moon Down
1998
Titus Bass
No one captures the glory, adventure and drama of the courageous men and women who tamed the America West like award-winning author Terry Johnston. His Plainsmen series brims with colorful characters, fierce battles and compelling historical lore.
The Civil War was over, and a great westward march began. Settlers and soldiers poured out of the East along the Bozeman Trail, cutting deep into sacred Sioux hunting grounds. For Red Cloud and his warriors, there would be no choice but to fight for their ancestral rights.
Seen through the eyes of gruff Sergeant Seamus Donegan, here is the historically accurate tale of a tragic opening to the war between two great civilization: the Fetterman Massacre of 1866.
The wild and free world of the mountain man is quickly fading into the past. For Titus Bass, leading his family north to winter with the Crow people, the journey is a sad one. He must save an old friend from death and rescue his daughter Magpie from cutthroat traders. He will try to free a wagon train of innocents from its unscrupulous leader, and he will try to come to terms with his long-lost daughter Amanda, bound for a new home in a faraway land Bass himself will never see.
But when he arrives in the land of the Crow, he finds old friends–and old ways–dying out. Determined to live out his final years in peace, Bass comes to realize that on the changing frontier, survival is never a certain thing. Soon he will face his greatest lesson and hardest challenge of all–one that might cost the last of the legendary mountain men his life.
Sioux Dawn
THE FETTERMAN MASSACRE, 1866
1990
The Plainsman Series #1
Wind Walker
2001
Titus Bass
Entrenched on a poorly sheltered island, many of Seamus Donegan's crack squad of Army scouts lie dead--and many more are dying. Led by Colonel George Forsyth, fifty seasoned plainsmen had combed the Colorado Territory in search of Cheyenne. Along a fork of the Republican River, these brave men suddenly found themselves outnumbered twenty to one. Now Donegan, his fellow scouts, and his long-lost uncle are trapped--and under attack. As the battle rages, Donegan is stalked by a traitor who seeks revenge for old wrongs. Together the dwindling band awaits a heroic last-minute rescue from the merciless nine-day seige--known today as the Battle of Beecher Island.
Seven month of small reprisals since the Fetterman massacre had passed. Sergeant Seamus Donegan of the Army of the West had witnessed proud leaders--both Indian and White--steel themselves for the withering clashes to come. And on two consecutive summer days, battle erupted--drowning the Dakota Territory in a damburst of bloodshed: the Hay Field Fight and Wagon Box Fight of 1867.
The Stalkers
THE BATTLE OF BEECHER ISLAND, 1868
1990
The Plainsman Series #3
Red Cloud's Revenge
SHOWDOWN ON THE NORTHERN PLAINS, 1867
1990
The Plainsman Series #2
The Modoc Indians and American officials had been flirting with war in the Oregon Territory for some time. When Modoc chief Keintpoos murdered a Civil War hero during negotiations, the U.S. Army launched a deadly offensive against the rebel tribe. Besieged in the natural stronghold of the Lava Beds near Tule Lake, the Modocs waged bloody war for seven long months.
Sergeant Seamus Donegan, on the trail of his uncle, Ian O'Rourke, arrived at Tule Lake just as the conflict erupted. Soon Donegan and the brooding O'Rourke found themselves embroiled in what would be the costliest war in frontier history.
Grueling winter gave way to bloody spring as Seamus Donegan and his fellow Army scouts rode west with the Kansas Pacific Railway. Led by the legendary "Buffalo" Bill Cody, they withstood blazing hit-and-run raids by Cheynne Dog Soldiers--while trailed by a skulking enemy from Donegan's past. Then, in midsummer, the fleeing Cheyennes camped. And the 5th Cavalry mounted the brutal surprise attack that would give rise to a fierce new warrior-leader named White Horse: the battle of Summit Springs, 1869.
Devil's Backbone
THE MODOC WAR, 1872-1873
1991
The Plainsman Series #5
Black Sun
THE BATTLE OF SUMMIT SPRINGS, 1869
1991
The Plainsman Series #4
Newly freed from service with the 10th Cavalry, Seamus Donegan joins a party of buffalo hunters as they follow the shrinking herds into the ancient hunting grounds of the Kiowa and Comanche. The presence of the white men ignites a storm of Indian fury and the group is besieged. Donegan and some 27 men and one woman take shelter in a few sod shanties. They hold off over 700 braves for five days in the fight at Adobe Walls.
From then on, the U.S. Army would not rest until the Indians of the Staked Plain returned to their reservations. Under the command of Colonel Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, Seamus Donegan rides back to that embattled land as the U.S. Army tracks the tribes of Chief Quanan Parker to Palo Duro canyon--for a bloody showdown that would forever change the face of the West.
Chief White Bear and his Kiowa tribe would accept no more broken promises from the white man, so they left the Indian Territory reservations and crossed the Red River to the south. But heir last desperate attempt to regain the land of their ancestors meant dead white settlers, embattled soldiers, and shaken supply routes. general Sheridan's seasoned forced were now on the move to stem the Indian tide. And crack Army Sergeant Seamus Donegan would soon find himself at the center of a vast and bloody war.
Dying Thunder
THE FIGHT AT ADOBE WALLS AND THE BATTLE OF PALO DURO CANYON, 1875-1876
1992
The Plainsman Series #7
Shadow Riders
THE SOUTHERN PLAINS UPRISING, 1873
1992
The Plainsman Series #6
As the Sioux and the Cheyenne amass along the northern frontier, army scout Seamus Donegan heads north to Fort Fetterman and Brigadier General George C. Crook prepares to face off against Crazy Horse.
Frontier Scout Seamus Donegan is heading for Montana Territory with his new bride when war erupts in the Black Hills of Dakota. Sitting bull and Crazy horse have defied the federal Government and refused to lead the wild tribes of the Northern Plains onto the reservation, and Washington decides to end the Indian problem once and for all.
Donegan joins us with General George Cook who is leading the 2nd and 3rd Cavalry and a rough-and-tumble band of scouts and interpreters into the bloody battle. For Seamus Donegan and the men on the front lines, the long fight in the bitter cold of winter will be one of loneliness and fear--a struggle for survival that will not end, even with the swift and successful assault one the enemy stronghold. For in the ashes on the snow, in the fury of defeated warriors, the seeds are sown for a new and even bloodier chapter in the Indian Wars.
Reap the Whirlwind
THE BATTLE OF ROSEBUD, JUNE 1876
1994
The Plainsman Series #9
Blood Song
THE BATTLE OF POWDER RIVER AND THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT SIOUX WAR OF 1876
1992
The Plainsman Series #8
Gathering his officers at Fort Laramie, Phil Sheridan prepares for the winter campaign for the sole purpose of capturing the elusive Sioux Chief Crazy Horse, whose exploits have put the U.S. Cavalry to shame.
In the wake of the Little Big Horn, the U.S. Army declares war on the Sioux and Cheyenne and embarks on a long and arduous campaign of vengeance that tests the courage and strength of all those involved, including scout Seamus Donegan.
A Cold Day In Hell
THE DULL KNIFE BATTLE, 1876
1995
The Plainsman Series #11
Trumpet On the Land
THE AFTERMATH OF CUSTER'S MASSACRE, 1876
1995
The Plainsman Series #10
The U.S. Army’s goal: to wipe out the remnants of scattered, starving people on the frontier’s Northern Plain. But before Colonel Nelson A. Miles, the Bear Coat, launched his spring campaign into the heart of Indian country, the commander took one last stab at negotiations—and called on a Cheyenne woman and the famous half-breed pony scout named Johnny Bruguier. Together, they traveled to the valley of the upper Rosebud River to urge the Sioux to surrender. But a personal grudge exploded in the ranks of the U.S. Army. Now, as a man and a woman risk their lives for peace, the culmination of the great Sioux War is set in motion, and the Bear Coat takes on the last of the fierce Lakota warriors.
Scout Seamus Donegan is not under the command of Col. Nelson A. Miles, who must lead his war-weary troops up the Tongue River into butte country. There, amidst the snow-covered bluffs, awaits Crazy Horse with a thousand-strong force of Lakota braves. They are ready to engage Col. Miles and the Fifth U.S. Infantry, in the last battle Crazy Horse will ever fight against the white man's army.
Ashes Of Heaven
THE LAME DEER FIGHT, MAY 7, 1877
1998
The Plainsman Series #13
Wolf Mountain Moon
THE BATTLE OF THE BUTTE, 1877
1997
The Plainsman Series #12
In the summer of 1877, in a place called White Bird Canyon, Nez Perce warriors delivered a stunning blow to the First Cavalry—the worst defeat since the Little Bighorn one year before. Now, General O.O. Howard is charged with hunting down the Nez Perce and defeating them at last. Willing to sacrifice their ancestral homeland, with little understanding of the ways of the mighty U.S. government, the Non-Treaty Nez Perce begin a push out of Idaho for Montana and for peace. But it is too late. For warriors, soldiers, and strategists—and the innocent caught in between—a bloody battlefield awaits, at a place called Big Hole, Montana.
By mid-1877, trouble in the Northwest is brewing like a foul broth. Ill will is growing between white settlers and the Non-Treaty bands of the Nez Perce. The American government is forcing the Indians from their homelands onto the reservation. Many go quietly, thinking more about their families than of the pride of their warriors. But for a few holdouts, there's no room for compromise. Their history, their heritage and their ancestors are buried beneath that land. Although severely outnumbered and outgunned, a few brave warriors will heed the call of...CRIES FROM THE EARTH.
Lay the Mountains Low
THE FLIGHT OF NEX PERCE FROM IDAHO AND THE BATTLE OF BIG HOLE, AUGUST 9-10, 1877
2000
The Plainsman Series #15
Cries From the Earth
THE OUTBREAK OF THE NEZ PERCE WAR AND THE BATTLE OF WHITE BIRD CANYON, JUNE 17, 1877
1999
The Plainsman Series #14
For more than a decade one man struck fear in the hearts of U.S. soldiers on the frontier: Crazy horse, the great Oglala Sioux leader, who destroyed Custer at Little Big Horn, fought Crook toe-to-toe at the Rosebud, and outwitted and outran the Cavalry across the windswept plains where as a child he had played. Now, on a cloudless day in May, the legendary warrior rode toward the soldiers who had been his enemy for so long. In 1877, Crazy horse surrendered to a young lieutenant, and tale of betrayal and murder began.
In this powerful, moving account of the last days of Crazy Horse, Terry C. Johnson weaves a saga of warriors, lovers, peacemakers, traitors, war, and suffering among the innocents on both sides. Most of all, this is the story of one man--a mystic, a fighter, a father and husband--whose last journey was as fateful and dramatic as a life lived without surrender.
Turn the Stars Upside Down
THE LAST DAYS AND TRAGIC DEATH OF CRAZY HORSE
2001
The Plainsman Series #16