Nate Starbuck is back, and the northerner, son of a prominent Bostonian preacher who fights for the Confederacy in the American Civil War, is thrust into the murky world of espionage and treachery after he is - wrongly - accused of being the man responsible for a detailed breakdown of Confederate defences around Richmond falling into the hands of Allan Pinkerton, a former detective in the Chicago Police Force, who had been plucked from that role to lead the Union's Secret Service in the fight against espionage.
The opening of Copperhead details the hellish fight at Ball's Bluff, as a northern raid into Virginia begins, and is easily and bloodily repulsed by Confederate forces who are still riding high on their unexpected win against a far better trained and equipped Union army at the Battle of Manassas (or Bull Run, depending on which half of America you're from) to open the war. Starbuck and the fictional Faulconer Legion, commanded by Starbuck's new enemy, Washington Faulconer, played a big part in both battles, and are front-and-centre at Ball's Bluff as the Yankee forces are routed.
There is a new Northern general, George McClellan, known as the 'Young Napoleon' but the Great White Hope for a quick end to the war isn't quite like the Napoleon who ran roughshod over Europe nearly a century before the American Civil War. McClellan spends a lot of his time trying to justify reasons for not attacking what he doesn't know are very weak defences around Richmond. One solid thrust forward, and perhaps the rebellion's capital would have fallen, saving too many families too much grief and sorrow as the war continues.
Starbuck is away from the Faulconer Legion for the most part, in Richmond with Sally Truslow, the daughter of K Company's rough sergeant, and then fighting for his life in a prison, at the hands of a mysterious Confederate inquisitor whose methods leave Starbuck the frail shell of a man before he is rescued by another mysterious sort of man, and sent on a mission into the Northern lines to spread more mischief, and to discover the name of the man who is betraying the Confederacy with his detailed communiques to McClellan and Pinkerton. Though, in reality, Starbuck knows who the traitor is.
There in the Union army, Starbuck comes face to face with his brother, James, who had been imprisoned by the Confederacy after the disastrous - for the North - loss at Bull Run, and also spends time in McClellan's company. Present, also, is Patrick Lassan, the French cavalry colonel in America as an advisor, and who is clearly the son of Cornwell's other great soldier, Richard Sharpe. It's a nice collision between those two worlds. Later, Lassan has a big part to play in Starbuck's return to southern lines.
As always, Cornwell has written a masterful novel, weaving in his fictional plot surrounding Starbuck with real events, and sheds interesting light onto McClellan, whose troops loved him (even though he wasn't a very good general) and on the back-and-forth politicking amongst the Southern generals. At this point in the war, nearly a year in, Robert E. Lee is far from the celebrated hero he will become by the end of the conflict. They call him the 'King of Spades' or 'Granny Lee' because his preference is to bolster Richmond's defences above all else.
Copperhead is a fascinating window into a complicated time, particularly as it's written from a Confederate perspective, and the real shame is that Cornwell wrote two more Starbuck novels and then stopped. There's no telling when - or if - he'll resume. I really hope he does!
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