The Broken Circle eBook David P Bridges
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Dr./Major Breathed chooses the cause of the Confederacy over medicine but will that decision cost him the love of his life? James is swept away into a war created by divisions between the northern and southern states. The Broken Circle has elements that mirror a Greek tragedy that sets up the paradoxical inner conflict of saving life as a doctor versus destroying life as a soldier. He re-channels his genius from medical to master warrior and ultimately becomes disillusioned and demoralized. Mollie Macgill utilizes her espionage talents as the two fall in love throughout the course of the war. In the final post-war chapters they both seek redemption from God for their greater devotion to the Southern cause. As they seek to repair their shattered souls the tragic brokenness of James's and Mollie's lives is revealed. The Broken Circle is full of historically accurate battle scenes and the characters are historical people.
"Major Breathed, a morally sensitive, philosophically inclined young man desiring a career in medicine, became a bold and effective warrior at the center of Lee's battles. As a commander of horse artillery, Breathed fought in over 70 engagements. He was post-humously awarded the Medal of Honor, of which there have been only 48 ever given, for outstanding bravery beyond the call of duty. His story is a struggle over constitutional, political, and moral conflicts--and the story of a romance."
--Donald W. Livingston, Emory University
"Breathed's romance brings a touch of suspense that goes beyond the normal Civil War book--along the lines of two of the best Civil War novels, Gone with the Wind and Cold Mountain . Breathed's internal conflicts and transitions--from doctor to warrior to cold-blooded killer to reflective, maimed survivor--is a story that is weighty and symbolic of soldiers of many wars. Both of these subplots transcend the military action of the Civil War, distinguishing the book."
--Waite Rawls, III, Museum of the Confederacy, Director
"Bridges brings a theologically trained mind and insights that illumine important events of this critical time in American history while bringing an understanding of how Breathed's faith in God's providence guided his life, propelling him into the Confederate Army. The novel will attract students of the Civil War and readers exploring the inner life of this son of the south."
--William P. Wood, First Presbyterian Church, Charlotte, North Carolina
Reverend David P. Bridges is Adjunct Professor of Writing at the University of Richmond. He served a quarter of a century as a Presbyterian minister currently Honorably Retired. David has degrees in economics from the University of Kentucky; Master's of Divinity from Louisville Presbyterian Seminary; post-graduate studies University of Chicago, Divinity School; Hollins University; Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Richmond, Virginia. www.davidbridges.com
The Broken Circle eBook David P Bridges
The descriptions of the battles seemed to be accurate. I lived in VA. for a few years and I was able to go to a lot of the places where the events in the book took place.A very enjoyable book.
I would strongly recommend this book.
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The Broken Circle eBook David P Bridges Reviews
The Broken Circle is based on true events during the Civil War and it really takes you into the hearts and minds of Southerners during that time. I am a Northerner, but it showed me a whole new perspective of how the war broke families, states, bodies, and dreams and gave me an understanding of what the country went through during those long and difficult years. I urge everyone to read The Broken Circle.
“The Broken Circle”
by David P. Bridges
In this historical novel about the Civil War, the title “The Broken Circle” is apt. Protagonist James Breathed, his circle of aristocratic families, and the South itself are all broken by war’s end. The haunting question is whether Breathed’s brokenness was necessary?
Bridges’s book is remarkable for transporting the reader back to the 1860’s. The welcome descriptions of décor, dialogue, cadences of life, and upper Southern life finery create a rich tapestry of the times. These scenes transcend mere historical description or narrative making the era vibrantly alive.
Breathed is an historical figure (and distant relative of the author) who serves in the Army of the Confederacy. But the story interestingly starts as Breathed completes his medical school training at the University of Maryland. In the opening chapter Breathed makes an impressive recitation before the class on detecting and treating pneumonia of the lung, which demonstrates his promise as a physician and healer. He hopes one day to find a cure for the devastating disease. Rather than remain in the east upon graduation, however, he goes “west” to practice medicine, treating many casualties of the Kansas-Nebraska border war over slavery during which he becomes steeped in Southern antagonism for the “intermeddling” North.
Breathed finds war between the North and South inevitable. While he expects he will be a military doctor for the South in that conflict, a chance encounter changes his destiny. At a train station while coming east he meets Jeb Stuart, then a federal cavalry officer. During the train ride the two share philosophies and sentiments over state’s rights and Southern independence. Breathed feels an instant kinship with Stuart, and in that existential moment, knows he will not become a military doctor but a soldier of the Confederacy when war finally rages.
When war breaks, Breathed enlists. Though he wrestles with the conflict between his Hippocratic Oath to save lives and his soldier’s duty take them, he quickly rationalizes that the “nobility” of the Southern cause is the higher calling. But underneath is his hot Scot-Irish temperament toward fighting shared by many of his Confederate brothers and Southern soldiers through the ages. So instead of a healer, Breathed became a tenacious fighter dedicated to the mass destruction of “Yankee” soldiers. Many Southern victories are attributable to his ability. He develops innovative tactics, fights without regard for his personal welfare, and moves up the officer ranks. He even has an encounter with the flamboyant Union cavalry officer golden-haired George Armstrong Custer. But as tenacious as is Breathed, the strain of such intensity in the face of years of constant, grave danger, primitive living conditions, and finally a wound, takes its toll.
Off the battlefield, the book is one of the best of depicting daily camp life and routines of Civil War soldiers, the curious mixture of frivolity, boredom, and fear. The book convincingly shows the Southern soldiers’ initial optimism for a quick victory; the early casualties followed later by the unimaginable casualties of major battles; and as the war drags on, the succumbing, mounting fatigue, weariness, and depression as the South realizes victory will elude it.
Bridges participated in Civil War re-enactments, so his battles scenes are particularly well done, showing in detail the tactics, strategy, and maneuvers of horse cavalry from limbering and transporting cannon, swabbing cannon barrels, aiming and setting fuses, firing, and the gross human destruction the shells wrought. Scenes of counter-battery fire compound the total danger of the war where there is no safe place. Descriptions of the sheer magnitude of dead, wounded, and disfigured casualties left behind on battlefields are unnerving. The horror of the primitive medical conditions and absence of medical logistics in the Civil War makes one shudder.
Off the battlefield, Breathed has a love interest, a distant cousin Mollie (also an historical figure) who shares fully his Southern beliefs and opposition to Northern interference. They both are from Maryland, a border state, and much of Mollie’s story occurs in that conflicted area as she puts her life in danger to aid the Confederate cause. Mollie’s father mentored Breathed through his medical training and becomes a surrogate father for Breathed when his own father takes the loyalty oath to the Union which Breathed takes as a betrayal. Bridges expertly shows the quaintness of courtship in those times. But Breathed and Mollie have to endure the separation and fear for each other’s safety occasioned by a long and violent war. Breathed returns to Mollie at war’s end, but the question is whether he has been too shattered by his war experiences to feel worthy of marriage to her.
Sentiments linger at the close of this book. What if Breathed had served as a doctor instead? Was the cause worth becoming broken?
“The Broken Circle” is a gripping story of passion, belief, and fate. It vividly records American history. It is well worth your attention.
- J. Mark Hart, Author of Fielder’s Choice
You can tell from the beginning of this book that David Bridges knows about the history of the Civil War and how it affected all those who fought and those who supported them. It is a story of dedication, love of country, love of state and of divided loyalties. It is a story that could be told with different characters but still have the same conclusion.
James Breathed is a doctor use to saving lives not taking them. But he learns that in time of war sometimes you take them and other times you save them no matter what color they are wearing.
The story starts when James meets Jeb Stuart, later to become a famous Confederate General, on a train ride to Maryland. The war has not begun but soon will and Stuart tries to talk James into joining his unit he is forming to fight for the South.
James joins Stuart and eventually becomes a Captain over the artillery and the battles in the book are told from this perspective.
Mollie is a young girl that James has known since he was a child. Both her father and James father are doctors and the families have become fast friends. Mollie and James fall in love and when they part, for James to join Stuart, Mollie decides she needs to do something for the cause also. So Mollie starts to watch carefully and to listen carefully and is able to collect information that helps the confederacy. Her adventures add color to the book.
James makes it through most of the war without any outward wounds but the inward wounds are building as the war drags on year after year. Finally near the end of the war a physical wound happens that gives Mollie and James a chance to be together for a time as he recovers, but he never fully recovers and their love is put on hold while James tries to figure what lies ahead for him. He tries to give rest to his soul by delivering babies and being the doctor that he started out to be but the pain is sometimes more than he can bare, physically but mostly emotionaly.
This story is well written but a bit to long in places with too much detail that was not necessary to the story and caused it to bog down in places.
I give this book a three out of five stars, the story is not exciting but is very interesting and a very good read.
Thanks Eileen for this review.
Good shape
Outstanding novel based upon real people and events. This book would make a great HBO mini series.
I had read a newspaper article about this same information. I am pleased to be able to read the details of this great man's life.
An excellent story of a doctor who leaves Maryland to join the Southern cause in the civil war. The internal conflicts of the doctor and the fighter are well portrayed. There is also a love story between the doctor and his childhood friend. The detail in the scenes involving the battles is exceptionally well done.
The descriptions of the battles seemed to be accurate. I lived in VA. for a few years and I was able to go to a lot of the places where the events in the book took place.
A very enjoyable book.
I would strongly recommend this book.
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