A novel of naval warfare between the North and the South during the Civil War.

When Brother Fought Brother... From the granite cliffs of New England to the lust Mississippi delta, Americans shouldered their muskets and marched off to war. And Matt Hovey of Maine was no exception. He had sworn he would not fight, resolved not to soil his hands with his brother's blood, but even Matt Hovey could not withstand the tide of the times. Turned fugitive by a sudden, shocking murder to avenge his mother's unspoken shame, Matt fled to St. Louis and the perilous unprincipled world of blockade running. But the sight of Phoebe Widden, the innocent young girl he loved and left, trapped in the lecherous web of the war profiteers shocks Matt to action. He must defend the woman and the land he loves. On a Union ironclad in the thick of Grant's great Mississippi offensive, Matt tests his daring and his dedication. The victory of the great River War marks a turning point in America's grimmest struggle and the emergence of Matt Hovey as a man of valor who has fought for the land—and the woman—he has made his own.

In the days that followed Appomattox, exhausted Confederate soldiers and countrymen found that they had suffered through one long, bitter war only to be confronted by another: the grim fight to survive on their own devastated land. Gangs of wandering ex-soldiers and freed slaves pillaged the countryside. Thousands of Southerners perished; only a few were able to stand and fight for the little they had left.