Publisher's Synopsis
The story of America from 1720 through 1859 through the lives of Jim and Missy Cobb's ancestors and associated families. They come to America for reasons of religious freedom, economic opportunity, and escape from troubles. They find a raw, untamed land where survival depends on hard work and a long rifle. They fight in all of America's wars - French & Indian, Revolutionary, 1812, Creek, Mexican-American, and Bleeding Kansas - as America expands from its Eastern Seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. The most famous Morgan son, Daniel Morgan, becomes America's best field general in the Revolutionary War. Other Morgan descendants build a prosperous shipping company and the Erie Canal. They participate in the Great Awakening and the fight for Bleeding Kansas. The Gerlachs, Jim Cobb's mother's family, help create a Southern Moravian center in Salem, North Carolina while a wayward son gains land in Texas as a war veteran and card sharp. The Cobb Family builds a large farming estate in Piedmont North Carolina. Elisha Cobb serves as a sixteen year old rifleman in the decisive Southern Campaign. Cobb nephews migrate to Tennessee and Texas. Silas Cobb rises from company commander to chief of staff for Andrew Jackson in defense of New Orleans. He and his Tijana wife buy ten leagues of fertile soil south of the Austin Colony in Texas. Their son, Ben, serves as aide to General Houston and later as a Texas Ranger Captain in the war with the Comanche. Pierre Broussard leaves Haiti after serving as a district militia commander and building a fortune in sugar refining and export. Broussard befriends a English soldier of fortune who represents his uncle's bank in Haiti and later serves as acting 93rd Foot Regimental Commander in the Battle for New Orleans. The Mexican War is experienced in the service of Ben Cobb as aide to General Taylor in North America; Granville Calvert, a teamster drafted into General Kearney's Army and emerges as a cavalry lieutenant after adventures in New Mexico and California; and Henry Wilkins who 'sees the elephant', as a Private in the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers and General Scott's army that conquers Mexico City and ends the war. Jonathan Morgan serves in the 1st New York Volunteer Regiment, musters out in California, becomes a 48er, and finds easy gold. They are caught up in the regional struggle that explodes in the American Civil War triggered by Bleeding Kansas and John Brown's Raid on the Harpers Ferry Armory.
