Kendall Gott

Kendall D. Gott is a retired Army officer and retired senior historian at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is the author of several books and studies on American history. Professor Gott resides in Leavenworth County with his high school sweetheart, Julia, and their dachshund, Carly.

Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry-Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862

Civil War

Selected as Honorable Mention for the 2004 Albert Castel Book Award. With the collapse of the Confederate defenses at Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, the entire Tennessee Valley was open to Union invasion and control. These Northern victories led to the surrender of Nashville, the loss of Middle Tennessee and Northern Alabama, and set up the 1864 Atlanta Campaign that cut the Confederacy in two. Had Confederate planning and leadership been better, no one can say what difference it might have made to the Civil War in the West and the outcome of the war itself.

Steamboat Seasons and Backwater Battles: A Riverboat Pilot on the Western Rivers in the Civil War

Historical Novel

This is the story of a young man with the ambition to crawl his way up in Victorian society by leaving the farm and signing onto a steamboat. After becoming a certified pilot, he is quickly swept up in the war he does not understand that divides the country and threatens his goals. He witnesses the militarization of the steamboat trade and the coming rise of the railroads. When the boat is acquired by the War Department for conversion to a "tinclad" gunboat, he and other skilled men are contracted to the Navy and find themselves in the thick of the fighting on the western rivers. There, they must grapple with the moral complexities and the human and economic consequences of the war. The battles and locations are real, and the tale reveals the trials and tribulations of forming a navy on the western rivers. Such topics as boat acquisition, manning, and arming are presented in detail. Others such as leadership and race relations of the era are as well. This story is a unique and colorful over-the-shoulder look at steamboat life and the war on the rivers.

Steamboat Seasons - Dawn of a New Era: The Sequel to Steamboat Seasons and Backwater Battles

Historical Novel

This historical novel is the sequel to Steamboat Seasons and Backwater Battles, following our Captain and his steamboat during the year after the American Civil War. He finds little remains unchanged of his life, his livelihood, and his country. His love, Ann, rejoins him, but conflicts arise. Consignments fade away as the Southern economy is wrecked, and it may be years before its recovery. The newly freed African Americans have not realized any true benefits the end of slavery promised. Labor disputes and competition from the railroads and the dangers on the rivers cause the Captain to reassess his life. A deadly conspiracy stalks his boat up and down the Mississippi and onto the Missouri River-and ends in a final confrontation.​

Ride to Oblivion: The Sterling Price Raid into Missouri 1864

Historical Novel

The lands along the Kansas-Missouri border saw hostilities and violence years before the Civil War officially erupted in April of 1861. People had to choose a side as neutrality was not tolerated by either belligerent. Those who tried to stay out of the fight were swept away. After the Camp Jackson affair in St. Louis, a young merchant decides it is time to cast his lot with the secessionists to defend his home and business. Carried away from his mercantile by war, he finds the brief conflict he expected was not to be. The months become years of battles, deadly political intrigue, and a journey of thousands of miles. Suffering great loss in body and spirit, his search for retribution becomes something else entirely. This story is a historically true account of the South's waning years and Sterling Price's raid through Missouri in 1864. The battles and all the locations were real ones, as well as the characters with proper names.

Gone to Kansas: 1855

Historical Novel

While shelves are filled with accounts of industry titans, politicians, and exalted military leaders, this is a tale of an estranged young man making his way in a hard, cold, and often cruel world. Escaping a dull future with little meaning, he follows the example of his childhood hero and comes west into the Kansas Territory to seek his fortune. He first joins a freighting company down the Santa Fe Trail and then returns to the turbulent "Bleeding Kansas." The long miles are marked by countless graves, scoured by Indians, and fought over by two bitterly opposed political factions. Often discouraged, he must thread his way through these obstacles, and he concludes that he could use a little divine inspiration.