Glorieta Pass
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
In 1861, New Mexico Territory is swept by change as the United States erupts in civil war. Federal troops are recalled to the east, leaving the way open for Confederates to invade New Mexico and capture its resources on the way to the ultimate prize: Colorado gold!
Three young people are caught up in the conflict: Alastar O'Brien, a Colorado miner turned soldier; Laura Howland, a young lady from Boston, recently orphaned; and Jamie Russell, a shop clerk from Texas serving as a quartermaster. The maelstrom of war brings them together in a clash of ambition, patriotism, and the simple need to survive.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Recounting the adventures of five people caught in a quandary of allegiances and passions brought on by the Civil War, this engrossing debut dramatizes the preamble to the 1862 battle between Texans fighting for the South and Union troops reinforced by ragtag Coloradans at Glorieta Pass, just outside Santa Fe, N.Mex. The characters, whose paths cross on the trail from Colorado to Texas in 1861, include an illiterate miner who dreams of becoming a gentleman by commanding a company of Colorado Volunteers; an orphaned young Bostonian woman adjusting to life in Santa Fe; the son of a Texas rancher who fights for the Confederates; a Tennessee man torn between conflicting loyalties; and a young Colorado officer with a murky past. Although at times the pace is slowed by a superfluity of characters and subplots, Nagle's tidy prose evokes memorable protagonists, vivid landscapes and high suspense, not only in the gut-wrenching action but also in the relationships between her characters.
