At the outset of the Civil War, two southern soldiers, one from Alabama, the other from Tennessee, their friendship forged in the fire of battle, embark on a journey of self-discovery. Having escaped capture and destruction at Fort Donelson, they struggle westward to join up with the regiment of the Alabamian's two brothers, only to find themselves, cold, weary, and exhausted, caught in the futile struggle at Island No.

10. Taken prisoner, eventually only one of the four will survive their ordeal.

Although a meticulously researched and historically accurate novel, one resonant with vivid detail, it is less about war, in the sense of battles, tactics and strategy, as it is about men at war. It is a journey of identity and self-discovery, as the men struggle to get "home.

" It is about friendship, family, tenderness, loss, wrongdoing, and redemption. Zevitz and Braswell have crafted a genuinely moving story that evokes emotions such as courage, fear, camaraderie, anger, shame, sadness, and perhaps even hope.

It is an authentic tale of men at the grassroots level of war, where life was rough-hewn and precarious. Stephen G.

Fritz, Ph. D.

East Tennessee State University Author of Frontosldaten: The German Soldier in World War II The Trials and Tribulations of a Confederate Soldier is a realistic novel of historical fiction which shows humans harrowing hell but retaining hope. The writing is consistently very good, often beautiful in its description of persons and places, conveying unobtrusively, the "stamp of verity.

" Robert J. Higgs Ph.

D. Author of God in the Stadium.