This narrative, then, has as a backdrop, the struggle of the people of the South to resist the Yankee leviathan. The fledgling nation, disadvantaged in both manpower and materiel, held the enemy at bay. The South, after mustering every able-bodied man, could enroll, in all, but 600,000 soldiers, while she fought 2,600,000. Never was there a war continued for four years at such fearful odds.

In this narrative you will find a vivid picture of the female strongly animated against the invader. They beat their male relatives hollow in their denunciations and hopes of vengeance. The fortitude of the Southern woman on the home front has everything to do with keeping their husbands, sons, and brothers in the field. The Southern lady is no wallflower, and her vocal pluck recalls the Spartan mother who admonishes her soldier to return home, either with his shield, or upon it.

It is scarcely necessary to add that, although the romance is entirely imaginary, the author has naturally drawn upon his experiences and observations during the war, both in Jackson County, Texas, and while marching with his regiment, the Second Texas Infantry, C.S.A., in Tennessee and Mississippi.

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What if the Southern Confederacy had won the war? That question played upon my young mind when an article in Look magazine posed it back in 1960. The question seemed far from seditious on the eve of the war's centennial, for America had not yet allowed revisionism to destroy the history of what was called the War Between the States.

Many may disagree with my version of which battles were critical to the struggle for Southern independence, the form and timing of the peace agreement, and what lay in the future. It is, however, my hope this alternative history places historical events in their correct context — and my tale is entertaining.

Of course, the South did not win the war, and most of what Americans think they know about that conflict has been passed down by the victors. I ask those who enter here to leave that world behind them. Consider instead that racial tensions in our present day are partly due to policies implemented after the war ended.

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