April and May 1863, "turning-point" summer of the Civil War. In the East, Lee's greatest victory, Chancellorsville, sets up the crushing defeat at Gettysburg. In the West, everyone knows a Union attack is coming on Vicksburg, fortress city of the Mississippi River. But when? And where? Suddenly, Union cavalry descends on the state like angry bees. Enraged Confederates racing behind them, wily Union cavalrymen led by Colonel Benjamin Grierson are here, destroying supplies--no, they're there, half the state away, blowing up trains--no, they're... Where are the rude bastards? The Confederates are kept so busy haring after Grierson's ghosts that they leave the fortress city virtually unguarded--always a mistake when U.S. Grant is prowling nearby. Bart Willoughby--new lieutenant from New York, besotted by Olivia, trying to stay two pages ahead of his men in Hardee's Tactics--is thrust along with the rest of the Union raiders into the middle of this turbulence. Novices at riding and killing, the raiders struggle through Mississippi, along the way gaining experience, confidence, and a dash that will either carry them through to safety or get them killed before they can push beyond the last river still in Rebel hands.