The Sound of Chariots Author:Helen Topping Miller Helen Topping Miller, author of two other fine historical novels (Dark Sails and Shod with Flame) now turns to an unfamiliar phase of the Revolutionary War. Excitingly she presents the war as it affected the western settlements of North Carolina - now East Tennessee - counties too far from the seat of government to feel a part of their state. Th... more »ey needed forts and militia to protect them from the Indians. No wonder their loyalties were divided between the British, who represented a life of order and safety, and the Colonial government, seemingly unable to fight or to rule itself or even to survive. No wonder there were those who bargained with both sides to protect themselves no matter who should win. The author has created a host of well-defined characters in the varied range of the frontier - Giles Hanna, the penniless soldier who has been with Washington at Valley Forge and who leads the Marots on the terrible trail over the mountains; the gay and gallant Perrin twins who both fall in love with Lisle on first sight; the seductive Raleigh Bevan trafficking with Indians, British and Colonials for land titles with deadly disregard; and men and women, salty of speech, rude in gaiety, doggedly determined to build their own homes on their own land in the wilderness. ... The Sound of Chariots is the sound of America's westward movement; the sound of a newborn state, the State of Franklin, which had its brief being from 1784 to 1788. In it speaks the voice of John Sevier, brave patriot and prudent governor. In it speaks the undaunted courage of our pioneers.« less