First published 2011
June 1864. The Civil War grinds through its fourth bloody year. Union armies sit trapped in fetid trenches outside Richmond and Atlanta. Abraham Lincoln faces almost certain electoral defeat, which would end the war and preserve slavery. General Ambrose Burnside, a commander fallen from grace, sees one last chance. He wants to tunnel beneath Confederate Fort Pegram at Petersburg and blow it apart. For the assault afterward, he plans to use troops from the United States Colored Troops, nearly two hundred thousand African American volunteers eager to prove themselves in combat. Artist and correspondent James Reilly serves as Lincoln's secret observer, reporting honestly from the front lines. There he befriends Sergeant Major Garland White of the 28th USCT regiment, an escaped slave and minister who prepares his men for an attack that could either win the war or destroy them completely. Political interference threatens to doom Burnside's plan before it begins. The fate of the Union may rest on one desperate gamble.
Genres: american-civil-war, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Atlanta, Petersburg, Richmond
Period: 1864, Civil War
364 pages · Hardcover · Thomas Dunne Books
Content warnings: violence, war