Harper's Donelson

February 1862. The War of the Rebellion is a year old and, except for minor skirmishes, the Federal army has suffered repeated defeats in the East, the West, and the Trans-Mississippi. After Confederate forces violate Kentucky's neutrality, US Grant occupies Paducah Kentucky in order to ensure Federal access to the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers.

When Lieutenant James (Jamie) Harper returns from leave, he discovers that not only has he lost his position in a combat company but he has also lost the trust of the men in the First Iowa Mounted Rifles Volunteers.

Young, nave, saloon girl Katie Malloy, who provides comfort to Harper on his last night of leave, must settle into her new life to work off the indenture paid to her drunkard father. She befriends Eleanor St. Croix, a former New Orleans courtesan, who promises to teach her how to exploit her position in order to become an independent woman-of-means.

The Battles for Fort Henry and Fort Donelson provide Harper a way to demonstrate his military abilities, but the opportunity goes awry when his is captured by Confederate partisans operating under Bedford Forrest. Although Harper is in nominal command, Corporal Gustav Magnusson, a Quaker farm boy who ran away from home to join the army, is the one the captured men look for leadership. Meanwhile, allowed to assist in nursing the overwhelming numbers of wounded from Fort Donelson, Katie envisions an opportunity for a different future.

In this first volume of the Shiloh Trilogy, three lives intertwine against the backdrop of the battles which made Ulysses S. Grant's reputation. Gabhann reveals the perils faced by the common people caught in the midst of the War Between the States in the style of C.S. Forester and Leon Uris.