Here the series focuses on the Mississippi River. Prior to the war, Cory Brannon had gone west to seek his fortune and joins the crew of a steamboat whose captain has definite loyalties. Brannon soon finds himself at the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson and winds up at Pittsburg Landing, where the battle of Shiloh temporarily stymies the Union advance into the Confederate heartland. "... a ripping good read." -- The Civil War News As the Civil War sweeps across the country, it finds the most wayfaring member of the Brannon family working as a wharf rat at the Mississippi port of New Madrid, Missouri. Cory Brannon's first step toward the fighting, however, doesn't take place at a recruiting office. Instead he's rescued from a bar fight and makes the acquaintance of Capt. Zeke Farrell of the riverboat Missouri Zephyr. Later, when a small party of men attempts to burn the boat, Cory sounds a timely warning and finds himself the newest member of the crew. The Zephyr makes the journey from New Madrid to New Orleans in late 1861 and ventures as far north as Cairo, Illinois. During the passage, Cory matures professionally and personally and finds that he has an interest both in learning the ways of the rivermen and in his captain's daughter, Lucille. His interests, however, subside when the vessel reaches Cairo in early 1862 and is greeted by Union gunboats. The war is now on the water, and there is little room left for river commerce. Farrell, his ship, and his cargo pass Yankee scrutiny so that the riverboat is allowed to continue on to the Tennessee River. Here the boat is drawn into the battle lines developing around two strongpoints on the river: Confederate Forts Henry and Donelson. At the same time, a Union force under Ulysses S. Grant is preparing to initiate the fight to claim the prime water route for the North. Cory and his crewmates must choose sides and join in the fight to see which side will control the river. Cory learns what it's like to fight for one's beliefs. He experiences combat. He sees men fall in front of him and beside him. He is taken prisoner and paroled. He loses Lucy and searches for word of her well-being in Nashville and beyond. When he learns that Grant is preparing to move farther south, he tries to alert the Southern leaders of the danger growing in Western Tennessee. In the end he takes up arms again, this time at the battle of Shiloh, where the largest armies in the West collide to determine the fate of the war in the western theater. Shiloh is the second book in a projected series of eight, spanning the Civil War and describing its effect on one southern family. The Brannon brothers answer the call to arms at different times, and the family finds itself struggling with dilemmas it never had considered. JAMES REASONER is a veteran writer of historical fiction. Author of several volumes in the Wagons West series, he has also written Westward, Expedition, and Outpost, a frontier trilogy set in the years before the Lewis and Clark expedition. Reasoner lives near Azle, Texas. The firing was fierce all around him. Cory looked for the Texan and saw the man's back disappearing into the gloom up ahead. Cory followed, hoping that he wouldn't run right into a Yankee bullet. He saw something blue ahead of him, snapped the rifle to his shoulder, aimed for a second, then pulled the trigger. The rifle kicked heavily at his shoulder. Powder smoke drifted in front of his face and into his eyes, stinging them so that it was almost impossible to see anything. He dropped to a knee again and blinked rapidly, trying to clear his eyesight as he reloaded more by feel than anything else. Cory lifted his head, saw a Union soldier running toward him, and fired. The shot caught the man in the chest and flipped him over backward. Cory rolled over, jackknifed to his feet, and broke into a stumbling run. When he reached the gully, he slid down into it and paused. It was only a matter of time before the Yankees caught up to him. He decided he would rather be facing them. He stood up enough to peer over the edge of the gully. A handful of Union soldiers were visible about fifty yards away. Cory drew a bead on the one of them and fired. The man fell to the ground. A couple of Confederate troopers jumped down into the gully with Cory. They fired into the knot of Federals and sent the rest of them sprawling. One of the Southerners let out a Rebel yell. Cory didn't feel like shouting in triumph. He was too busy reloading. He didn't stop until Forrest's cavalry came riding through the woods. The guns had fallen silent except for an occasional pop in the distance. Cory struggled up out of the gully with the other Rebels. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew one thing. He was alive. He had survived.