On an open prairie in front of a mission called the Alamo, Santa Anna's soldiers won a brutal victory -- in a battle that became a call to arms around the country. Brave men answered from across the United States: New Englanders and Virginians, Kentuckians and Cajuns, all came to the brawling, sprawling province called Texas to sign a Declaration of Independence on Sam Houston's birthday.
Now four men from Alabama, new recruits in John Shakleford's Red Rovers, have joined the fight: Pierce Hammond, the cowardly son of a wealthy plantation owner; Mingo Green, a runaway slave yearning to be free; Boone Tasker, too poor to marry the woman he loves; and Gabe Cochran, a young widower with nothing left to live for. Fleeing their pasts, they are bound by a noble cause. And they will back up their words with their honor, their courage, and their lives.
1997 by Jason Manning Signet Books (New York) 350 pp ISBN: 0-451-19142-0
Sandwiched between the two novels about the Black Jacks (The Black Jacks and The Marauders), this was my only stand-alone book published by Signet. This work allowed me to weave the stories of four very different characters together against the backdrop of the war for Texas Independence, with the denouement being the Battle of San Jacinto. In retrospect it was a lot to pack into 350 pages -- the book could easily have been twice as long, and probably should have been.