Redeeming Honor: 1863

Captain John McBee's war in 1863 starts on an icy road in Virginia and reaches through four states to end brutally in the frozen mountains of southeastern Kentucky. In January, three dozen new recruits arrive to northern Virginia, green as grass, needing a firm hand at drill. Meanwhile, a hundred miles away in Lexington, Faith Samuelson is an uninvited houseguest about to give birth to twins. After General Stonewall Jackson's tragic death in May, his burial brings thousands of mourners to Lexington, including Captain McBee and the Confederate officer who is Faith's other husband. In the shadow of the funeral procession, violence and death result. John McBee leaves Lexington burdened with the conflicting duties of commanding men at war and protecting his threatened family. Finding unexpected help in his own army camp, the captain shoves aside his personal trials as Lee's army invades Pennsylvania in June. At Gettysburg, for the first time, the Texans are beaten back, unable to fight their way up among the boulders and drive the Union infantry off the crest of Little Round Top. While the army is recovering from its defeat at Gettysburg, Captain McBee's chance afternoon encounter on a train with the Confederacy's Secretary of State, Judah Benjamin, turns into a frenzied night of fight and flight. On loan to General Bragg's Army of Tennessee, General Longstreet's Corps, including the 'Bloody Fifth' Texas Infantry, takes a nine-day train ride, ending in Georgia at Chickamauga Station. There the Texas Brigade is again thrown into battle, offered the chance to redeem themselves as Lee's Grenadiers. As snow falls, intrigue hounds Captain McBee and Faith when a Union spy master matches wits with Secretary Benjamin. The couple becomes ensnared in a web of deceit and killing during Confederate partisan leader Champ Ferguson's winter war in southern Kentucky. Redeeming Honor is the second book in the Captain McBee Civil War trilogy.