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the STRANGE
and TRAGIC  WOUNDS
of GEORGE COLE'S
AMERICA

“Civil War history as a murder mystery about the American dream” -- Scott Sandage (Born Losers)

“...deGruccio has written a history as gripping as any novel and as profound as anything I've read on the US Civil War. Following one man's struggles, he narrates this conflict in all its complexities while showing how the questions it failed to resolve―about the meaning of freedom, equality, and the American dream―have become only more pressing over time."
―Frances M. Clarke, author of War Stories: Suffering and Sacrifice in the Civil War North, and co-author of Of Age: Boy Soldiers and Military Power in the Civil War Era  (winner of the 2024 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize )

the RACE
of LIFE
 

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. 

-- Ecclesiastes 9:11

What if I find a picture or Mary Cole?

Well, I think I'd cry tears of joy. I am so tired of inventing in my head what her eyes were like. But I am not holding my breath. I don't anticipate having much pressing news. But who knows? Maybe we'll discover a photo of Mary and the girls. Maybe someone tips me off on some letters from her. Or I gain clarity on Eliza Bruce, the formerly enslaved woman with whom George started a second “marriage." If any new developments, surprise finds, or special features get added to this website, this is how I will alert readers. (I won't sell your info to Putin's bots, or to anybody!)

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“Don't fear my manhood."

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