Historical Spotlight & Giveaway – Too Much the Lion by Preston Lewis

StoreyBook Reviews June 26, 2025June 25, 2025

TOO MUCH THE LION:

A Novel of the Battle of Franklin

By PRESTON LEWIS

Historical Fiction / Civil War Fiction

Publisher: Bariso Press

Pages: 395

Publication Date: May 13, 2025

Synopsis

In the waning months of the American Civil War, a delusional Confederate commander makes a desperate attempt to change the course of the South’s dwindling hopes by invading middle Tennessee. The tragic result of Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood’s misplaced hubris devastates his Army of Tennessee and alters the lives of the citizens of Franklin, Tennessee.

In a historical novel reminiscent of The Killer Angels, Too Much the Lion follows a handful of Confederate generals, infantrymen, and local residents through the five days leading up to the horrific Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. The lives of soldiers ranging from Major General Patrick Cleburne to Brigadier General Hiram Granbury and from Sergeant Major Sumner Cunningham and to Corporal Sam Watkins will be forever changed by Hood’s decisions and mistakes.

Franklin civilians like apprehensive and loving mother Mary Alice McPhail and teen Hardin Figuers, desperate to serve the Confederacy but too young to enlist, are ensnared in the events that will bring death and devastation to their very doorsteps. Devout Confederate Chaplain Charles T. Quintard must reconcile his religious beliefs with his support of slavery. Slaves like the elder Wiley Howard and the inquisitive young Henry B. Free are trapped on the fault line between what has been and what could be.

Too Much the Lion offers an unvarnished account of the dying days of the Confederacy in a powerful and moving narrative of honor and betrayal, bravery and cowardice, death and survival. Told with poignancy and honesty by an accomplished novelist, Too Much the Lion achieves for the Battle of Franklin what The Killer Angels did for the Battle of Gettysburg, providing a classic fictional account of one of the Civil War’s pivotal encounters.

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About the Author

Preston Lewis is the award-winning author of some sixty western, historical, juvenile, and nonfiction works. In 2025, he was honored with the Will Rogers Medallion Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the literature of the American West. The Texas Institute of Letters in 2021 elected him to membership for his literary achievements.

Western Writers of America (WWA) has honored Lewis with three Spur Awards, one for best article, the second for best western novel and the third in 2025 for juvenile nonfiction. He has received ten Will Rogers Medallion Awards—six gold, two silver and two bronze—for written western humor, short stories, short nonfiction, and traditional Western novel.

Lewis is a past president of WWA and the West Texas Historical Association, which named him a fellow in 2016. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and a master’s degree from Ohio State University, both in journalism. Additionally, he has a second master’s degree in history from Angelo State University.

He lives in San Angelo, Texas, with his wife Harriet Kocher Lewis.