by 
Something in Madness (DarkHorse Trilogy, Book 3)
Appomattox ended the war with a penstroke… but the struggle for freedom had only begun.
by Ed Protzel
(Historical Fiction, Historical Adventure)
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After Appomattox, idealist Durksen Hurst and two Black cohorts return to Mississippi, survivors of a Union colored regiment, accompanied by Durk’s fiancée, Antoinette DuVallier.
Durk seeks title to the lost property the men had owned before the war, while wise Big Josh Tyler is content to build a school for the freedmen suddenly liberated from slavery. Josh warns Durk his land ambition is too dangerous—and perhaps it is.
They soon find ex-Confederates, led by Colonel Rutherford, in charge of the town, powerful men who fear emancipation is turning their old world topsy-turvy. These ruthless interests are leveraging cruel Black Codes, terror, and deadly force hoping to recreate the past. And to acquire Durk’s land.
Meanwhile, a peaceful freedman community has settled on an abandoned plantation, setting up a makeshift school in the old stable. But Colonel Rutherford, who is scheming to evict the freedman and take the land, leads his night riders to burn the school down.
Durk sets up a law practice to aid poor whites and freedmen. When he pleads before the town council for racial amity, his Union military service is revealed, making him the town pariah. Ever hopeful, Big Josh leads a petition march to the state capitol with a plea for racial harmony, undeterred by attempts to terrorize them.
Over the years of their friendship, trickster Durk and Josh had outwitted slavery and both Union and Confederate miscreants during the war. Now, however, Durk must figure out how to save vulnerable freedman families from brutal mayhem. He also must right past wrongs in court, including misdeeds of his own doing. Can he overcome the odds?
A Word from the Author
I wrote Something in Madness, the final book in my Southern historical DarkHorse Trilogy, to call attention to early Reconstruction, a little-known but consequential period of American history, that would set the course for Jim Crow, segregation, and today’s racial divide.
After the Civil War, Southerners commonly believed that Black people could not survive being free. Education had been proscribed during slavery, and freedmen had few assets or prospects. Planters and men in power even discussed doing away with the Black race by violent means, but needed them to work plantations.
The first two novels in the trilogy (The Lies That Bind, 1859-61 Mississippi,and Honor Among Outcasts, 1863 Missouri)followDurk and his twelve Black cohorts as they use their wits to navigate slavery and Civil War.
Something in Madness begins shortly after Appomattox, with the group’s three survivors returning to Mississippi, having fought for the Union, only to encounter powerful ex-Confederates who refuse to accept emancipation still in charge—as was true throughout the South. Each of the novels is distinct and can be read individually.
Frankly, I found researching Something in Madness disturbing, and I’ve read a lot of history over the years, especially dealing with the Civil War. As painful as it was to study, I felt a duty to enlighten readers and give homage to those who suffered under the weight of oppression.
So I weaved the plot of Something in Madness aroundvery real circumstances freedmen faced, including Black Codes, rigged courts, and unrestrained violence designed to force them back into the fields for little or no pay. In fact, in the book, one of Durk’s friends, Long Lou, gets caught up in such a ruthless labor network.
Real justice has been a long-time coming for Black Americans. Although Durk and his friends’ aspirations could not be fully realized, they did hold the hope that better days lie ahead. The characters in the DarkHorse Trilogy had the inner strength to envision a better future and to act upon those hopes. And that says something about the enduring human spirit.
(Ed Protzel, December 2020)
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