The 15th Star (A Lisa Grace History - Mystery)

by Lisa Grace

  Thank you to my mom and dad, Ray and Marge Nelson, who cheer me on and read everything I write, and my precious daughter Cammy for helping me understand the birthing process first hand. (She reads everything I write too!)

  Background

  The 15th Star is a work of fiction. The War of 1812 is one of the least understood in American history. President James Madison presented the reasons why we should go to war to Congress on August 1, 1812, and by August 18, 1812, the three-year War of 1812 had begun. The war was in great part in protest of the nine hundred American merchant ships the British had seized since 1807, as being in violation of the trade embargo that they had imposed against France. American sailors and ships were being conscripted, against their will, to fight for The Royal Navy against France. Those who could afford it could pay a fine and regain their freedom.

  As a new country, a short thirty-six years after gaining our independence, it was our time to re-assert our right to national sovereignty.

  While most of the historical characters did exist, I have taken the liberty to imagine events that have occurred only within the confines of this story. Please feel free to research the facts at various state, government, and museum websites and archives. Again, this is a work of fiction based on historical events and people. One fact remains, the 15th Star is missing to this day, and I am sure the Smithsonian would be grateful for its return.

  The story in this book is a complete fabrication of my imagination of what occurred to these real-life people. I wrote this story to make history come alive. The characters of Mr. Rivers and Mr. Copper are made up. I did not want to saddle any of the fine people who made our country, bear the weight of such evil behavior, although men like that certainly existed and had an impact on our country’s history.

  Sources

  Cover photo credit:

  http://www.saratogaflag.com/starspangledbanner.html

  I used the following books and web sites as a reading list to get a feel of the time period surrounding the War of 1812.

  Founding Myth’s - Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past by Ray Raphael, ©2004, The New Press, ISBN # 1-56584-921-3, www.thenewpress.com

  Breaking The Chains - African American Slave Resistance, by William Loren Katz, published by Atheneum Macmillan Publishing Company, ©1990 by Ethrac Publications, ISBN # 0-689-31493-0

  What Hath God Wrought - The Transformation Of America, 1815 - 1848, by Daniel Walker Howe, Oxford University Press, ©2007, #ISBN 978-019-507894-7, www.oup.com

  Smithsonian national Museum of American History - http://www2.prnewswire.com/mnr/americanhistory/35485/docs/35485-History_of_the_SSB_Fact_Sheet.doc ©2008

  http://www.usmm.org/warof1812.html

  http://www.ordersofbattle.darkseapc.net/site/history

  The Naval War of 1812 by Theodore Roosevelt 1883

  http://www.history.navy.mil/librarymanuscript/king_george.html

  http://www.flaghouse.org

  http://www.mdoe.org/pickersgill.html

  http://www.warof1812.ca/1812events.html

  http://www.wehali.com/tsalgi/index.cfm?event=showSyllabary

  http://www.ourwhitehouse.org/warof1812.html

  http://www.ourwhitehouse.org/primarydolleyletter.html

  http://maryland1812.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/lt-colonel-george-armistead-1780-1818-commander-fort-mchenry/

  http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/ArticlePrintable.jsp?id=h-1274

  Other books by Lisa Grace:

  A young adult supernatural series:

  http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Series-Books-The-ebook/dp/B0087UHG0W/