A Distant Trumpet Summary
Paul Horgan

A Distant Trumpet Summary

Horgan explores the nature of duty and the varying capacity of human beings to love each other. So committed is Lieutenant Hazard to his duty that when one of his men deserts on a particular mission, he feels as if he were the victim of a betrayal "like a betrayal in love." Matthew Hazard is exemplary in his devotion to duty, until the climactic moment when he must instead be faithful to his conscience.

The figure and myth of Abraham Lincoln, references to whom appear at both beginning and end of this novel, and the values of kindly strength, fatherliness and patriotism associated with him in American history, loom large here. As a child growing up in Indiana, Matthew Hazard races after a campaign train with Lincoln aboard, and for his efforts is given a nearby captain's blue kepi, along with the presidential suggestion that he attend West...

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