Bøker av John K. Driscoll

From his first court martial as a cadet at West Point through his dismissal from the US Army at the age of 49, Brigadier General Justus McKinstry made his career through outright cunning and manipulation of the legal system. This biography takes a look at the forces within his life that shaped him into the man he eventually became.

In 1845, sparsely populated Florida had been admitted to the United States along with Iowa in an ill-fated attempt to keep the balance between slave and free states and ultimately avert the civil war that many felt was on the horizon. With the 1861 beginning of hostilities, Florida's Pensacola Bay area with its magnificent harbor, valuable navy yard and impressive fortifications became hotly contested by Union and Confederate forces. While Pensacola's lack of navigable rivers and limited rail access had kept it from developing into one of the country's major commercial centers, its location provided the perfect base for hostile strikes on nearby Mobile and New Orleans.