Early 1862. Union forces under Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis drive Confederate forces led by Brig. Gen. Sterling Price out of Missouri and into Arkansas. The Confederates, now representing combined forces under Gen. Earl Van Dorn, Commander of the Trans-Mississippi District, counter-attack and strike Curtis's isolated Union army at Pea Ridge in March 1862. Despite being outnumbered and almost surrounded, the Union army wins a stunning victory. Nine months later, a new Confederate army under Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman tries again. At Prairie Grove in early December, a furious and bitter battle...

Texas Rangers had patrolled on horseback since the early days of the Republic. Texas military heritage, born in a revolution from Mexico in the 1830s and maturing in the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, shaped all who lived there. Now, years later, a handful of these veterans and a generation raised in this heritage would make a colorful and heroic contribution to the Civil War as unique and independent "horse soldiers." This is the picturesque story of their battles and skirmishes where the often outnumbered cavalry, through bravado or sheer madness, frequently helped turn the tide of...