Ballygawley, County Tyrone,
Northern Ireland
Home of p.m.terrell's Ancestors

Tennessee History as you've never read it before
Historically accurate and written
by an award-winning author of suspense

River Passage
Published by Drake Valley Press, September 2009
Winner, 2010 Best Fiction & Drama Award

River Passage is the award-winning, harrowing true story of the Donelson Party as they migrated westward to Fort Nashborough in 1779 and 1780. The trip was supposed to take four weeks but instead, it took more than four months.

Mary Neely, her mother Margaret and her nine brothers and sisters were on the voyage. Their river route took them through Chickamauga Indian Territory at the height of the Chickamauga Indian Wars. Some of the settlers were killed, some were captured, and others were wounded. They also battled disease, small pox, frostbite, and near starvation. Find out who died, who was captured, and who lived to tell the tale...

The Nashville Government Metropolitan Archives has admitted the original manuscript into their Archives for future historians and researchers!

Inspired by the true story of Mary Neely, who was captured by Shawnee warriors in 1780 near Fort Nashborough (now Nashville, TN). This book details her capture and her two years in captivity, her eventual escape in Northern Michigan, and her journey home alone over hundreds of miles of war-torn country and through hostile Indian Territory. It is the story of a young woman who was renamed "Songbird" for her beautiful voice, but who never gave up hope of escape, never knowing how close she was to both death and freedom.