Dan Welch

July, 1862. General Robert E. Lee, now in command of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, had driven back the massive Federal Army of the Potomac from the very gates of the Confederate capital. Richmond was safe – at least for the moment. But soon, new threats emerged against Lee’s army and the Confederate war effort in Virginia. Rumors swirled that a Federal command headed towards Fredericksburg, and a new Federal army, the Army of Virginia, under Maj. Gen. John Pope, was shifting operations towards Confederate communications and supply points. Pope had come from the west, where he had scored successes along the Mississippi River. He brought with him a harder philosophy of war, one that would put pressure not just on Lee’s army but on the population of Virginia itself. Not only alarmed but also offended by “such a miscreant as Pope,” Lee began moving his own forces. He intended to not just counter the new threat but to “suppress” it. In Never Such a Campaign: The Battle of Second Manassas, August 28-30, 1862, historians Robert Orrison and Dan Welch follow Lee and Pope as they converge on ground once-bloodied just thirteen months earlier. Since then the armies had grown in size and efficiency, and combat between them would dwarf that first battle. For the second summer in a row, forces would clash on the plains of Manassas, and the results would be far more terrible.

June 1776: Just a month before America declared its independence from Great Britain, a British fleet of warships and thousands of British soldiers appeared off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. Following a brutal day-long battle, the most powerful navy in the world was bloodily repulsed by the Americans. In the spring of 1779, a British force brazenly marched up to Charleston from Savannah and tested the city’s defenses before falling back. Finally, in the spring of 1780, a massive British force returned to Charleston and laid siege to the city. This siege resulted in the worst defeat of the Revolutionary War for the Americans, as they lost the city and an entire army of nearly 6,000 men. After being conquered by the British, the citizens and soldiers suffered more than two years of occupation and imprisonment. However, the siege of Charleston marked the beginning of the end of the Revolutionary War. The fall of Charleston initiated a series of events that ultimately resulted with the American victory at Yorktown and the successful independence of the United States. Charleston, South Carolina is one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the United States. Numerous sites, battlefields, and buildings from the period of the Revolution still exist. In To the Last Extremity: The Battles for Charleston, historian Mark Maloy not only recounts the Revolutionary War history of Charleston, he takes you to the places where the history actually happened. He shows you where the outnumbered patriots beat back the most powerful navy in the world, where soldiers bravely defended the city in 1779 and 1780, and where thousands suffered under occupation. Through it all, brave patriots were willing to defend the city and their liberty “to the last extremity.”

Loot the market on the way up. Loot the treasury on the way down. Freddy Logan is putting a stop to that kind of thinking with the use of some unconventional means. Criminals found guilty of capital treason within major banking companies are executed but they don't stop talking just because they're dead In Goshen, New York, Amanda Wilson finds much of her time invested in her new friend, Sarah Russell - the beautful and dynamic former hard-hitting Wall Street Tycoon - who is also dead. Wilson works tirelessly to solve some loose ends in the wake of Russell's execution to fix the corruption in Wall Street, including Sarah's own husband. Defense attorney Andy Crane's clients have a sneaking suspicion that the prosecution has a trick up their sleeve. Desperate for plea bargains and witness protection, they consider that they might very well be better off dead. But little do they know... At the Glimmer Development Facility in upstate New York, Logan and his team uncover the secrets of these organizations by relieving the dead of their memories. With information to sell, it is all going gangbusters for federal prosecutors as Logan and his team methodically target the private sector shysters and their cronies in government. Bent on cleaning up white-collar crime, Logan's use of less than ethical means of interrogation and insistence on secrecy could lead him to be the target of a mutiny.