Wilmont Kreis

The Witch:
In the post war era, great lakes shipping boomed, to a large extent from the iron industry with increased voyages to Lake Superior and Duluth. Storms in the greatest of the Great Lakes are common and legendary, and the storm of November 1874 was a whopper. The sinking of the Morell and François-Xavier Salgat was a story too good to pass up. It put me in mind of Gordon Lightfoot’s famous ballad about the Witch of November. Hence the title of Book Seven. Read More 

Shakley-Shands
When the fall of the south is evident, Fillmore P. Shakley becomes Millard P. Shands, a clean cut cultured person complete with glass eye. He moves north and continues his evil ways on a much more sophisticated scale. Following his mysterious demise, his much more refined illegitimate son, takes over the family business raising it to a sophisticated level rising to its pinnacle in bootleg liquor in Book Eight: The Chief. Read More 

George de Baptiste was a driving force of the Underground Railroad and active member of the Black Baptist Church of Detroit in Book Six, De Baptiste was active with William Lambert in developing the 1st Michigan Colored Infantry. With the help of Henry Barns, editor of the Detroit Tribune, the organization of nearly 900 men was drawn from Detroit and Ontario from where many former runaway slaves returned to the United States to fight the Confederacy. In 1863 they trained at a farm in Detroit and later became known as the 102nd Regiment United States Colored Troops. They lost 10 percent of their troops fighting the Confederacy in the south in 1864. Read More 

Draft Dodging:
As with all wars using conscription, there are those unwilling to participate. Reasons are financial, religious, opposition to a cause or sometimes common sense. All of these were common in the War Between the States which was dramatically shown in the motion picture, Gangs of New York. As always, the most effective remedy was wealth. In the North it was frequently a lack of support for the cause. In the south (like my characters from Charleston) there was support of the cause, but not necessarily at the cost of one’s own skin. Our friend Shakley, was a master at profiting by all of the above. Read More 

Louis Kreis and the Civil War:
Louis is in fact my great-great uncle who immigrated with his family to Detroit as a young boy in 1853. He did lie about his age to join the war and was injured. I found his war record, which includes the weird story of his injury. I also have his Civil War watch. The engraving of his company remains visible on cover. Read More 

The Civil War in Detroit:
The story of the Detroit regiment comes from the historical record (with some romance and intrigue added by yours truly). Most of the names are accurate, like Horace Dodge, Louis Kreis, Napoleon Trombley and George Armstrong Custer, who did graduate at the bottom of his class at West Point, and whose leadership at Gettysburg, was more successful than his later adventure at Little Big Horn. More on Louis Kreis next week. Read More 

Fort Sumter:
In April 1601, our cast from Charleston meets at a harbor bistro to watch and toast the shelling of the recently built Fort Sumter by the new Confederate forces. Toasting each hit while dreaming of rapid victory and return to the great days of the south as an independent confederacy. Here the reader meets Caesar, an old crippled, colored servant, who works in the bistro. They unwillingly give this old man the will to escape and eventually join the Negro regiment in Detroit (more on this later). Read More 

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
A secondary venue at the beginning of book 7 is Charleston, South Carolina where a group of wealthy slaveholders meets to discuss policy at direct odds with northern abolitionists in Detroit. The thread between these two poles is the notorious, one-eyed, Fillmore P. Shakley, former runaway slave catcher turned black marketer and purveyor of all things illegal, immoral, and profitable. Read More 

THE DETROIT FARMER’S MARKET:
The story opens in the historical farmer’s market located at what is today Campus Martius and Cadillac Square. For generations this was the place for the French farming families to sell their wares, legal and otherwise, and for the community to buy them. It was also the place to go for the latest news, and for the French-Canadian Detroiters, the place to catch up on and spread gossip. As the story opens, in November of 1860, the topic du jour is more global than usual, the election of President Lincoln and the prospects of war. Read More 

THE ALLARDS BOOK SEVEN: THE WITCH
In 1861, Moise and Marie-Anne Allard have not yet recovered from the difficult birth of their first son, Moses, when Marie-Anne’s brother, her cousin and an old friend join thousands of young Detroiters marching off to war, returning four long years later as Detroit enters the industrial age. The Allards are guided by their unforgettable great-grandmother, Mimi Balard, while being threatened by their old nemesis, Fillmore P. Shakley, a slave catcher turned carpetbagger, when he returns to Detroit for revenge.
As a young adult, Moses Allard leaves the farm for marriage and the city life but eventually returns to the farm weary of labor unrest. While the 19th century comes to a close, the groundwork is laid for Detroit’s famous crime syndicate which will deeply affect the family into the 20th century and Book Eight.
All of Dr. Kreis’ books are available in print and Kindle format on Amazon.com. Read More