"A meticulously researched and compellingly told account of the Mexican-American War . . . brings to life some of the greatest legends of that era." ¿Ward Larsen, USA Today -bestselling author

1845. Texas joins the union. Mexico threatens war over the disputed Texas border. But much more than the Rio Grande Valley lies at stake-expansionists dream of an America that sprawls all the way to the Pacific Coast. Can a conflict with an already war-torn Mexico satisfy this lust for territory?

President James K. Polk sends troops the Texas border to test Mexico's appetite for war. General Zachary Taylor, known as "Old Rough and Ready," leads the invasion south. A 24-year-old lieutenant named Ulysses S. Grant gets his first taste of battle. Texas Rangers John Coffee Hays and Sam Walker expand their reputations as fearless fighting men. An Irishman, John Riley, quits the U.S. Army-along with hundreds of other mistreated immigrant soldiers-and forms a Mexican battalion of U.S. deserters. Army laundress Sarah Bowman is celebrated as a heroine on her way to becoming a frontier legend. The infamous Mexican warlord, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, returns to power through intrigue and political persuasion.

The Mexican-American war becomes the heroic proving ground for future Civil War generals and presidents of the United States, Mexico and the Confederacy. But the glories of victory are tempered by the horrors of war-lives lost, bodies battered, souls shattered, dreams crushed, whole cities razed and innocence forever dashed. With a sinister splendor two very different cultures clash in an epic adventure of duty, patriotism and courage to the death.