From the bestselling author of In the Season of the Sun and Scalpdancers comes a huge and powerful epic series in the exciting tradition of John Jakes. Newcomb, a research fiend and lover of American history, presents the first volume of a four-part series that follows an American military dynasty, The McQueens, through the struggle for independence. Each of the next three volumes will be issued every four months.

As the War of 1812 roars around him, dauntless Kit McQueen fights for both his young country and his own honorAfter years of battling the pirates of the Barbary Coast, Kit McQueen is shipwrecked on his return voyage before washing ashore in the steamy jungle of Spanish Florida, where the Spanish capture him and sentence him to death. On the morning of his execution, a Choctaw army storms the Spanish camp, led by the fearsome Iron Hand O’Keefe, an Irishman who has thrown in with the Indians. He saves McQueen’s life, returning him to the United States to fight a new war.Pressed into the service of his young nation, Kit is sent to the last place he wanted to back to Indian country. His commitment to the cause wavers when he is given an order he cannot bear to fulfill—hunting down the Irish traitor who once saved his life.

To reunite the Union, a spy infiltrates Confederate Vicksburg—but his own heart is torn between North and South Chaos reigns in New Orleans. The Confederates have fled in the face of the Union Army, and terror rules the streets. Jesse McQueen, a Northerner, is just a few hours from safety when his origins are discovered and he is sentenced to be hanged as a spy. With the help of a fiery beauty, he narrowly escapes, but the rope burn around his neck will mark him forever. Though he does not know it, McQueen’s neck remains in a noose. The citadel at Vicksburg sits on bluffs high above the Mississippi, its great guns dominating the river for miles. Until this Southern fortress falls, the Confederate cause still has a fighting chance. General Sherman knows his armies could never take Vicksburg, and so he sends just one man: McQueen, posing as a traitor. But when a Rebel woman steals his heart, McQueen’s resolve falters. Is it glory he wants—or is it love?

In the Texas desert, a soldier fights Rangers, Indians, and the woman he loves Doña Anabel Cordero gallops across the moonlit desert, a tribe of Comanche warriors at her heels. She is the daughter of the country’s greatest bandit, who was cut down by the Texas Rangers against whom Doña Anabel has sworn vengeance, and the Comanche do not scare her. But when a well-meaning soldier, Ben McQueen, mistakes her for a damsel on a runaway horse and slows her mount, the warriors surround them. With McQueen’s help, Doña Anabel escapes the Comanche . . . but their fight is just beginning. A savage cult roams the moonlit desert, exacting terrible vengeance on all who cross their path. With the help of a fearless Ranger named Snake Eye, McQueen sets out to bring order to the frontier. But when Doña Anabel’s cause runs up against his own, McQueen will have to choose between his country and the woman he loves.

To stop a savage war from spreading west, two brothers stare down an army The year is 1863. Even as the Union Army verges on total victory over the rebellious south, there are those in the North who clamor for a negotiated truce. Along a creek in the Indian territories, north and south collide, and conflict simmers between slaveholding plantation owners and the settlers who would keep the west free. As this tension threatens to boil over into open war, hardened settler Ben McQueen goes east to plead for help from Washington. But when an assassin in Kansas City ambushes and nearly kills McQueen, his sons must try to fulfill the mission themselves. Though brothers, Jesse and Pacer Wolf McQueen have grown up in different worlds. But when a conspiracy threatens to destroy their family and tear apart the country they love so dearly, they will put aside their differences and fight. As long as these brothers stand together, the Union has a chance.

Stricken by amnesia, Ben McQueen must confront his own past to escape a bitter conflict south of the border Isabella is on her way to bury her husband when the Comanche attack. Already half-mad from grief, she tumbles into delirium after the first wave of the assault, raving as her servant, the freed slave Zion, fights off the Indians with his shotgun. As the ammunition runs low, Zion prays for a miracle. He gets Ben McQueen. His memory gone, his body weary, McQueen has nothing to remind him of his past but the medal that hangs around his neck—a token that George Washington gave to Ben's grandfather. McQueen may not remember who he is, he still knows how to fight. With his help, Zion and Isabella may be able to escape the Comanche. But it will take more than a lucky medal for this unlikely trio to escape Mexico alive.