Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler

Joseph Alexander Altsheler was born on April 29, 1862, in Three Springs, Kentucky. In 1888, he became a reporter, then editor at a newspaper in Louisville, then began working for New York World in 1892 as a Hawaiian correspondent. In 1888, he married Sarah Boles and they had one son. Because of a shortage of stories, Altsheler began writing children's stories for a magazine. Eventually, he began writing short stories and novels in 1895, completing...

"The Sword of Antietam" tells a complete story, but it is one in the chain of Civil War romances, begun in "The Guns of Bull Run" and continued through "The Guns of Shiloh" and "The Scouts of Stonewall." The young Northern hero, Dick Mason, and his friends are in the forefront of the tale.