The Snakebit Series
Novels #1-#10 are available now.
Six upcoming books will complete the series
This is a fictional account of the American Civil War and its aftermath, as told by and through the Maryland Garrett family, their friends and enemies. It is not a single, continuing story arc. As it meanders across the country, North, South, East and West, it becomes more a collection of interrelated short stories that reveal engaging historical and cultural details to titillate the reader and make the conflict and the era come to life. The series covers 1859 to 1877, from the period leading up to the contentious election of Abraham Lincoln through the troubled Grant Administration. Ultimately Snakebit exposes the reader to the origin of our current, seemingly irreconcilable, societal divide. Warning: authentic period dialogue includes many racial epithets. I do not condone nor encourage their use and I apologize for any offense they may cause the reader. Sadly, bias and bigotry were and still are an integral part of American culture.
Volume #1 Snakebit: Prelude to War
1857-1860
The Western Maryland, Garret family, struggles to maintain their farm as their neighbors argue the slavery issue. They live in a border state where folks take both sides and emotions run hot. Their stoic matriarch, known only as "Mother" holds the family together in the absence of her dead husband. The deceased patriarch, Valentine, a giant of a man both in stature and character. He acts as the family’s supernatural conscience and mentor throughout the series. It is his admonition that people who get snakebit think and act crazy which is how he viewed the state of the country when he died.
Historical characters are introduced, including Abraham Lincoln, future President of the Union and Alexander Stephens, future vice President of the Confederacy. Characters attend historical milestones like the tense trial of John Brown in Charles Town, Virginia, the 1859 Republican Political Convention in Chicago, and the Contentious Democratic Convention in Charleston South Carolina, as the question of race tears at the fabric of American society. Each chapter of each book is a self-contained story, just as each book can stand alone. Through it all the Garretts, live out our American story, the story we didn't hear about in school.
Purchase Here
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZM6XJMK?lv=shuf&language=he&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
Audio version available
Initial Reactions
Often in my opinion, historical novels are too much fish or too much fowl. too many facts or too many fictions. Poniske does a fine job of keeping the story, the characters and the action moving. Their conversations, ruminations and even their reflections ring true.
It is refreshing to find a series on the Civil War that begins before the bombardment of Fort Sumter. This one does not only that but adds stories of the Irish coming across the Atlantic as well as those who farmed in the East and those that traveled West, and even eyewitness John Brown’s trial.
Volume #2 Fire-Eaters
1860-1861
Here readers learn of the chaos building over the issue of slavery and the upcoming 1860 Presidential election in Western Maryland. Lincoln's election has causes national division. Visits are made to Washington DC, Richmond, and Baltimore. The Garretts are not at all partial to slavery and they run afoul of Burns, an antagonistic slave catcher. Burns is later involved in the destruction of their home and farm. Recovering from a severe beating, the current patriarch of the family, Geoff, sets off to track him down. Cotton diplomacy comes into play as do period relationships with slaves, freemen, and Indians. Everywhere, regional militias are established and readers come to understand the importance of Virginia in the coming crisis. The novel ends with Geoff closing in on Burns.
Purchase Here
Audio version available
Initial Reactions
Often in my opinion, historical novels are too much fish or too much fowl. too many facts or too many fictions. Poniske does a fine job of keeping the story, the characters and the action moving. Their conversations, ruminations and even their reflections ring true.
It is refreshing to find a series on the Civil War that begins before the bombardment of Fort Sumter. This one does not only that but adds stories of the Irish coming across the Atlantic as well as those who farmed in the East and those that traveled West, and even eyewitness John Brown’s trial.
Volume #3 Choosing Sides
1861
The third novel in the series puts the Garrett family in a precarious situation. Living in Western Maryland between the Loyal Northern States and the Confederacy. Fort Sumter has already been fired upon and taken. Where war had been threatened, war is now a grim reality. Burned out for ministering to runaways, the Garrets sell their land and move closer to the Mason-Dixon. There a slave girl rescued by Geoffrey in the previous novel is kidapped by her old owner. The same slave catcher who helped burn the Garretts out. This results in an exciting chase along the banks of the Potomac. Witness confrontations outside Fortress Monroe and again at Ball’s Bluff, both federal disasters. Visit Lincoln in Washington and Davis in Richmond. As McClellan gathers troops on the Peninsula, we accompany a blockade runner threading the needle through a Union naval gauntlet.
Purchase here
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1960903195?lv=shuf&language=he&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
Audio version available
Initial Reactions
The best historical fiction teaches you about historical events while making you feel like you're right in the middle of them. What makes John Poniske's books about the Civil War unique is how he takes things one step further so that you feel - and understand - the powerful emotions held by those on both sides. And those caught between them. It is illuminating but unfortunate how some of these attitudes and emotions live with us today. These books are highly recommended for those with a deep interest in the Civil War.
There are good scholars of American history who write solid workmanlike prose and there are good fiction writers whose characters take life by the throat and run with it. The combination of legitimate research and an engrossing story is rare in my experience. I am so glad to have found this series! Poniske's books are the best of both worlds, truly historical and truly creative.
Volume #4 The Crack Widens
1862
Eleven Southern states break with the Union. The peculiar institution of slavery, its continuation and spread into the Western Territories becomes the primary sticking point. Opinions are as divided as the country. Emotions run hot. Because of their abolitionist leanings, the Garretts have their homestead burned. They have lost their patriarch, Valentine. His brother, James, falls at Bull Run. Their Mennonite neighbor, Aaron, is lost at Ball’s Bluff. In the midst of it all, a little slave girl is rescued and taken in by the family as they pack up and move to Hagerstown, an important Maryland city near the Mason-Dixon. In the first half of 1862, all hell breaks loose. Gabriel Garrett becomes a war correspondent. Forts Henry and Donelson fall to Grant’s assaults. Iron juggernauts clash at Hampton Roads, Confederates invade New Mexico Territory, and New Orleans falls to the Union just as federal armies march up the Virginia Peninsula. In our fratricidal dive into the past we hear the perspectives of freedmen and slaves, Northern and Southern politicians, generals and privates, businessmen and preachers.
Purchase here
https://www.amazon.in/Crack-Widens-Irreconcilable-Differences-Snakebit-ebook/dp/B0D7NVXBTQ
Audio version available soon
Volume #5 Cattywampus
1862
The abolitionist Garretts and the Slaver McCunes are border state natives still haunted by the moral ghost of the Garrett patriarch, Valentine, and the evil machinations of the McCune patriarch, Jake. Together, or on their own, family members experience, Slaughter’s Mountain, an Indian uprising on the Plains, a German uprising in Texas, as well as the battles of Second Manassas, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. They enter common homes and glittering mansions. They interact with historical characters as well as fictional, and along their journey, they visit the capitals of Richmond and Washington, allowing you the reader to peer behind the curtain, to participate in historical decision-making. In 1862, both North and South were certain of victory. The four-million-strong black population knew one of them would win but, either way, where would it leave them? Slavery and Abolition, one or the other were intertwined in every political decision. Slavers and abolitionists drove the politicians to war, for after all, aren’t politicians the spearpoint of any conflict.
Purchase Here
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DL87Z6BN?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
Audio Book Planned
Volume #6 Lincoln’s Hirelings
1863
The Garretts and McCunes wander across the war ravaged, Dis-United States. Eighteen-sixty-three is a terrible time of tremendous upheaval. The Confederacy rallies at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville after which the Union’s victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg tamp down Southern aspirations. In the course of this dramatic confrontation, we visit Thaddeus Steven’s Iron Foundry just outside of Gettysburg, We investigate slave insurance in Western Maryland. While in the West we march with Grant through the swamps of Louisiana.
Black Americans, yet to be citizens, are drawn into the conflict as Congress allows the formation of the USCT (United States Colored Troops). Across the country, courageous black leaders make their presence and their intentions known. To name a few: Frederick Douglass in Washington’s Halls of Power, Harriet Tubman in the Carolinas, Andre Caillox and PBS Pinchback, in New Orleans. Thanks to a host of hopeful African Americans, the tide of war is turning.
Purchase Here
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FCSHKZH7?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
Audio Book Planned
Volume #7 Sundering Slavery
1863-1864
The Nation is divided, torn apart by a Civil War that has changed everything.
When Frederick Douglass and Walt Whitman cross paths in the capital, their unlikely conversation reveals just how much they share and how much America stands to lose. It is the bloody second year of the War. Gettysburg and Vicksburg have fallen. The Confederacy reels, yet Jefferson Davis refuses to surrender.
In Western Maryland, two neighboring families embody the nation’s fracture. The slave-owning McCunes, divided as the country, clash with the abolitionist Garretts. Together, they travel from prison cells to presidential chambers, from steamships to dining tables, and from the bustling streets of Baltimore to bloody, southern battlefields.
As the war rages, African American soldiers shock a divided nation by taking up arms, altering the fate of slavery forever. As sherman drives on across the deep South, Grant launches his relentless Overland Campaign, for which he is labeled, “Butcher.”
Sundering Slavery, Book Seven in SNAKEBIT’s sweeping 16 volume saga, continues an epic journey through America’s darkest conflict, where ordinary families and towering figures alike are forever changed by Civil War.
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Audio Book Planned
Volume #8 Political Quadrille
1864
The year is 1864 — and the nation hangs by a thread. Lincoln’s reelection is uncertain. Political rivals circle like vultures. The war grinds on with staggering losses. And the question that haunts every home, battlefield, and ballot box remains.
Can the Union survive?
In Political Quadrille, our flag Is sagging. The tide of the American Civil War enters its most volatile chapter. From smoke-choked battlefronts to the chambers of Washington, from Grant’s blood-soaked campaign to the back-room politicsl intrigue, the fate of the nation is up for grabs. Soldiers, families, correspondents, and politicicians, offer a powerful portrait of a country divided by principle and sundered by war. Loyalties fracture. Elections teeter. The Confederacy dares a final gambit. The Union bleeds, and yet strives to endure.
Rich in historical detail and fearless in truth-telling, Political Quadrille brings the war’s most pivotal year to life with emotional depth, moral tension, and narrative fire. The conflict that shaped America forever ends, but the struggle is far from over.
The battle for America’s soul continues.
Purchase Here
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1968640258?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
Audio Book Planned
Volume #9 Triumph & Tragedy
1865
As the Civil War draws toward its bitter conclusion in 1865, victory is finally within reach,
but at a devastating cost.
Across a fractured nation, soldiers, families, and survivors grapple with the consequences of a war that has torn apart homes, loyalties, and hearts. On the frozen front lines, young men from opposing sides share fleeting moments of humanity, only to be swallowed again by violence. Behind the lines, families struggle to endure loss, uncertainty, and impossible choices.
From daring raids and battlefield heroism to whispered letters and personal sacrifice, lives collide in a nation on the brink of transformation. Old alliances crumble. New identities emerge. And for many, survival itself becomes the ultimate victory.
But when the fighting ends… what remains?
In this powerful ninth installment of the sweeping Snakebit Series, John Poniske delivers a gripping portrait of courage, heartbreak, and the enduring question:
What is the true price of victory?
Purchase Here
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H2GDR1ZC?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback
Audio Book Planned
Volume #10 Uncivil Peace
1865-1866
The guns have fallen silent, but America is far from at peace.
The Civil War has ended, Abraham Lincoln is dead, and four million formerly enslaved people face an uncertain future. As Union armies celebrate victory and Confederate soldiers return to shattered homes, the nation confronts an even greater challenge: rebuilding a country still bitterly divided by race, politics, and the meaning of freedom.
In Uncivil Peace, John Poniske carries the Snakebit Series into the turbulent beginnings of Reconstruction. From the first celebrations of Juneteenth in Texas to the work of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the struggles of newly freed families, and the growing political battle between President Andrew Johnson and Radical Republicans, the promise of emancipation collides with resistance throughout the South.
Purchase Here
Audio Book Planned
Six more novels involving
RECONSTRUCTION
are upcoming in the SNAKEBIT SERIES!
Novel #11
PROMISES GIVEN: Rise of the Klan
(1867-1869)
Novel #12
Dreams Denied: B;ood & Intimidation
(1869-1870)
Novel #13
CURBING THE KLAN: The Enforcement Acts
(1870-1871)
NOVEL #14
PANIC!: Civil Rights & Wrongs
(1872-1873)
NOVEL #15
CONSEQUENCES: Ends & Beginnings
(1874-1876)
NOVEL #16
THE CORRUPT BARGAIN: Tilden or Blood
(1877-1878)
