The Cotillion Brigade: A Novel of the Civil War and the Most Famous Female Militia in American History (ePub)

Georgia burns.
Sherman's Yankees are closing in.
Will the women of LaGrange run or fight?

Based on the true story of the celebrated Nancy Hart Rifles, The Cotillion Brigade is a sweeping epic of the Civil War's ravages on family and love, the resilient bonds of sisterhood amid devastation, and the miracle of reconciliation between bitter enemies.

"Gone With The Wind meets A League Of Their Own."

1856. Sixteen-year-old Nannie Colquitt Hill makes her debut in the antebellum society of the Chattahoochee River plantations. A thousand miles to the north, a Wisconsin farm boy, Hugh LaGrange, joins an Abolitionist crusade to ban slavery in Bleeding Kansas.

Five years later, secession and total war against the homefronts of Dixie hurl them toward a confrontation unrivaled in American history.

Nannie defies the traditions of Southern gentility by forming a women's militia and drilling it to prepare for Northern invaders. With their men dead, wounded, or retreating with the Confederate armies, only Captain Nannie and her Fighting Nancies stand between their beloved homes and the Yankee torches.

Hardened into a slashing Union cavalry colonel, Hugh duels Rebel generals Joseph Wheeler and Nathan Bedford Forrest across Tennessee and Alabama. As the war churns to a bloody climax, he is ordered to drive a burning stake deep into the heart of the Confederacy.

Yet one Georgia town-which by mocking coincidence bears Hugh's last name-stands defiant in his path.

Read the remarkable story of the Southern women who formed America's most famous female militia and the Union officer whose life they changed forever.

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:

Foreword Magazine Indie Book-of-the-Year Finalist.

Historical Novel Society Editor's Choice Award: "The story reflects the author's impeccable research and passion for the subject [and] will appeal to readers who enjoy reading poignant, character-driven Civil War stories that will resonate in their minds long after finishing them. Highly recommended."

Military Writers Society of America Gold Medal Winner: "[H]istorical fiction at its best: solid research combined with great storytelling."

InD'Tale Magazine's Crowned Heart for Excellence Award: "[A] must read! The story is beautifully told...readers will feel they are in the scenes.... a fantastic journey."

"What a read! I am a descendant of Nancy Hart and ordered the book out of curiosity: I AM SO HAPPY I DID! The book is well researched, the prose leaps off the page; the characters a so well-developed. I want to read more by this author!" - A.A. Christmas

"The story is rich with detail, which will entrance you and, while you are distracted, circle around and cut off your escape, leaving you with no choice but to keep reading until there are no pages left to turn.... breathed life not only into the lungs of historical characters long dead but also into the era as well... It is a book that once read, is impossible to forget. Highly Recommended!" - The Coffee Pot Book Club

"[W]onderfully crafted... This telling of one of the lesser known chapters in the war had this reader intrigued from page one." - Hoover Book Reviews