O'Sullivan Chronicles Books

The Mule Soldiers is the true story - fictionalized - of Streight's Raid into Northern Alabama that took place from 19 April to 3 May 1863. A brigade of Federal infantry, led by Colonel Abel D. Streight, set out on a 220-mile ride to destroy the Western and Atlantic railroad at Rome, Georgia. The raid turned into a running battle between Streight's raiders and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The most fascinating thing about the raid is that Streight's brigade of four infantry regiments was mounted on mules, a huge problem in itself. Not only did he have almost 1,500 stubborn and wily animals to contend with, and the inimitable general Forrest, few of his men had ever ridden a horse, let alone a mule. For Streight, it was a long and tortuous journey across Northern Alabama. For Forrest, it was one defeat after another at the hands of the very "able" Abel Streight, even though he, Forrest, had the advantage of home territory and the sympathy and aid of the local populace.Streight's Raid took place at the same time as, and was loosely coordinated with, the more famous Grierson's Raid (the inspiration for the book, The Horse Soldiers by Harold Sinclair, and the movie of the same name starring John Wayne and William Holden). Although Streight was probably unaware of Grierson's Raid, it's certainly true that it caused a diversion that contributed to the success of Grierson's Raid, and much confusion among the Confederate pursuers of both raids.They say that truth is stranger than fiction. This amazing story proves the point, for the end of the story is... well, unbelievable.

During the last few days of the Civil War, a company of Confederate raiders rode into the small Kansas town of Elbow. There they raped, pillaged and murdered among the local populace, thus triggering a chain of events and a chase that extended for more than a thousand miles across the grasslands and mountains of Kansas and the deserts of New Mexico. Along the way, Confederate Lieutenant Jesse Quintana, a ruthless, cold-blooded killer without a conscience, and his men massacred a band of Comanche women and children, fought two battles with Comanche War Chief, White Eagle, and murdered and plundered his way southwest along the Santa Fe Trail. Quintana had a nine-day start over his pursuers, Captain Ignatius O'Sullivan and Sergeant Major Boone Coffin, along with an Osage Indian scout and a small company of Federal cavalry. The climactic end to the chase came among the mountains on the Mexican border six weeks after it began. You will remember O'Sullivan and Coffin from the author's previous novel, The Mule Soldiers. Their adventures continue.

On a dark day in April 1865, a band of former Confederate guerillas slaughtered more than forty Comanches, most of them women and children. This began a six-month reign of terror along the Santa Fe Trail as Comanche chief, White Eagle, took his revenge. The U.S. Cavalry was assigned the task of tracking White Eagle and his warriors down. Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius O'Sullivan's orders were to either bring them in or kill them. O'Sullivan, with two companies of cavalry tracked the Comanches through the mountains for more than six weeks, until.... O'Sullivan took to the trail in July of 1865, and followed them into the mountains along the northern border of Comanche lands. Can he bring the wily chief and his well-armed warriors to bay? Can his soldiers fight the Comanche on their own ground? And which of them will survive the battle?