Black Hawk

A new historical drama set in the Free State of Winston during the Civil War era has given local author Darrell Brock the platform he’s long craved to help him explore his own family’s past.

Brock says that Black Hawk, the story of George Washington Kilgo, his great-great grandfather, is his way of telling a fascinating chapter in his family’s story to his 97 year-old mother.

“I wanted to finish this one for my mother, because this is her grandfather that the book’s about,” Brock explained.

“She knows most of these stories from her own life, because her dad — the youngest son of George Washington Kilgo — used to tell them. But I wanted to research some of the other interesting things we picked up from family members, and get them all down so she could have the chance to read it.”

Covering the Incident at Looney’s Tavern and incorporating Kilgo’s friendship with “Black Fox” Bill Looney, Black Hawk works as a piece of historical fiction based on true events and real people. The story follows Kilgo from before the start of the Civil War through his ordeal as a Union soldier on the run from Confederate loyalists, and on through his journey to re-assemble his scattered family after the ravages of war had displaced them from their Free State home.

The book marks Brock’s second foray into the world of historical fiction. His first book, The Life and Times of Tom Hayes Book One: The Legend of the Horn-a-Corn, appropriated locations and people from Brock’s time as a student at St. Bernard College, and used them as backdrops for a post-Katrina story set in Louisiana.

Brock says he’ll be at this weekend’s Bloomin’ Festival at St. Bernard, where he looks forward to talking with alumni and guests about the people and places that inspired that work — while chatting about the new book as well.

Black Hawk is available via Amazon, as well as at the Brandin Iron Steak House, Campbell’s Grocery at Spring Hill, Berkeley Bob’s, and Karma’s Coffee House.