In 1775 Americans had to stand and make their choice. Some shouted for liberty and were ready to die with the word upon their lips. Others damned them to hell for their traitorous beliefs.
Against the surge and thunder of America's first struggle for supremacy on the seas is set this masterly novel of men's daring in the face of disaster. Through Lieutenant Andrew Warren, who served on the first Lexington and was one of America's first naval officers, the early growth and glory of our nation's armed might is portrayed. The course of action sweeps from Boston to Tory New York and turbulent Jamaica, climaxing in the great siege of Savannah. The characters, ranging from aristocrats to simple farmers, from idealists to vicious Maroons of the Cockpit country, ar as diverse as the people who suffered, betrayed and triumphed in the critical years of the War of Independence. Woven into the main action-young Warren's dangerous voyage to Jamaica for medical supplies for the desperate patriot armies-is the love story between him and Minga Allen. Moving at cross purposes yet irresistibly attracted, the two play out their dangerous intrigue in the violent interval of 1778 and 1779.
As America battles the British and struggles against its own internal dissension, the lives of three young doctors, intimately entwined by the historical events around them, are detailed in all their glory and, occasionally, their shame. While the cunning Dr. Asa Peabody schemes his way to a fortune under General Benedict Arnold, and Dr. Lucius Devoe strains under the demands of a central army hospital, the dashing Dr. Peter Burnham becomes a ship's surgeon on a privateer and witnesses some of the most tumultuous moments of the war. On the terror-ridden Danish island of St. Jan, Burnham finds a passionate love that redeems and emboldens his life.
Story of a young recruit writing an inspirational letter home to his mother in the midst of winter hardship, written for pre teen readers.
Dust jacket art by John Alan Maxwell. Stories of American soldiers in the Revolutionary War.