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By Valour and Arms
Dabney family saga Volume 3

James H Street

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The epic of the Arkansas, built in the wilderness by men who hauled her iron and guns hundreds of miles by ox wagons, is one of the most amazing and little-known dramas of Civil War history. The Arkansas struck terror from Illinois to New Orleans and became a ship that men whispered about; a ghost ship whose guns kept blazing although there were no men aboard her.

The building of the Arkansas and the siege of Vicksburg provide not just the backdrop, but the flesh and bones of the third novel in the Dabney family series. Author James Street warns his readers that they will not find the Civil War of Lee and Jackson in this book.

A galaxy of characters bring the story to life ― a gunner's mate who hates war, a British soldier of fortune whose lust for battle is exceeded only by his lust for drink, social and racial outcasts who outwit society's elite, dashing heroes, loyal sweethearts, melancholic husbands, shrewd and scheming wives, and perhaps most intriguing of all, a fat, cold and deadly, nine-inch Dahlgren gun.

During the Civil War human life was worth less than rotten mule meat while scoundrels and mountebanks worked and cheated in the red glare of Vicksburg's guns. In spite of human failings and the misery of war, James Street still maintains that there will always be honor, decency, and dignity for those willing to fight for them. From the makings of cannon powder to the use of spoiled pork to fire up the engines of the ironclads, this is history as it happened.

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