In anticipation of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 and the bicentennial of the Battle of New Orleans in 2015, New Orleans writer O’Neil De Noux spent two years researching and writing an epic historical novel set during this titanic struggle.
BATTLE KISS is an
historically accurate novel of the days and nights preceding and following the
monumental Battle of New Orleans. It is a saga of love and war, of battlefield
heroes, of young men and young women in love – a tale of spies and privateers,
ladies and rogues, patriots and traitors, sudden passion and sudden violence as
the battle unfolds in stages until the cataclysm of January 8, 1815, when a
rag-tag army of American backwoodsmen, Creoles, free-men of color, pirates,
Chickasaw, Choctaw and Attakapas braves, fortified by a limited number of U.S.
Army regulars and Marines and led by a general whose only experience was fighting
insurgent Creeks, stands between New Orleans and a battle-hardened army of
British soldiers, led by one of the Duke of Wellington’s finest field
commanders and hero of the Peninsula War against Napoleon – Major General Sir
Edward Pakenham. Fourteen thousand British combatants attack four thousand
Americans standing audaciously behind the Rodriguez Canal. BATTLE KISS is told from all three sides - American, British and
Creole.
During this turbulent time, two young women
recognize their growing affection for several young men caught in the battle,
men vying for their love yet willing to sacrifice their lives for their new
country. The story climaxes at the battle where rivals for the affections of
the women stand side-by-side on that foggy January morning as the British come
across the cane fields of the Chalmette Plantation at the quick-step, bayonets raised,
drums beating, bagpipes wailing, like a tidal wave of red. Who will die? Who
will live?
