John Jakes

One is from a Northern industrial family, one from a Southern plantation family. They're West Point graduates whose tried-and-true loyalty helps them survive the Mexican-American War. But their bond faces sterner tests. The issues dividing North and South can also set friend against friend.

Two clans caught on opposite sides when the Civil War erupts in May 1861: the Hazards of Pennsylvania and the Mains of South Carolina. As war is waged on one battlefield after another, lives on the homefront as well as the frontlines drastically change. The hatred, prejudice and greed that tear the fabric of a nation also threaten the very foundation of love and friendship between these two families.

Two families, the Hazards and the Mains, are geographically and ideologically separated by the U.S. Civil War. The hatred, prejudice, and greed that tear at the fabric of a nation also threaten to destroy the threads that have woven the lives of these two families together. Book one: One is from a Northern industrial family, one from a Southern plantation family. They're West Point graduates whose tried-and-true loyalty helps them survive the Mexican-American...

This saga follows two families - the Hazards, from the North, and the Mains, from the South - through their changing fortunes at home and the harsh realities of the battlefields. When the South surrenders at the end of the Civil War, the families are reunited once again in friendship. In the final installment, the two families continue through Post-Civil War Reconstruction into pioneer Indian territories.