Colonel Donald A. Walbrecht

Continuing from Book I (Hessian John, 19th Century Military Surgeon, that ended in 1849) and Book II (Hessian John, Army Surgeon in the Pioneer West that ended in 1861), 44-year-old Mississippi plantation-owner Johann becomes a Confederate Army surgeon helping to organize the Souths medical corps and serving briefly as a Southern spy in the Unions medical headquarters in Washington. While in the Union Army, he serves as a battlefield surgeon in the opening battles of the Civil War where he is wounded, captured by his own army, and returned to Confederate service where he continues as an army surgeon until sent on a gold-collecting mission to California serving President Daviss hopes to stabilize the collapsing Confederate economy and to overcome the Souths blockaded access to European weapons and supplies. Finally, he participates in the attempted escape of President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet officials, ultimately returning to his Davis Bend plantation, Lindenbaum, where he is faced with the harsh problems of the Reconstruction Era so troubling to many Old-South landowners. In this third of a four-book series, military surgeon John continues on a stark Civil War Journey through mid-19th-Century Southern and Western America, participating in major historical events that deeply influenced his life.