Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863 out now!

Today Osprey Publishing released Ride Around Missouri: Shelby's Great Raid 1863, my latest in a series of Civil War books. This one's nonfiction, but my Civil War novel will come out next month!

This book focuses on one of the Civil War's longest cavalry raids--Confederate cavalryman J.O. Shelby's ride up from Arkansas and through Union-held Missouri. His raiders destroyed infrastructure, skirmished with Union detachments, captured small forts, and led thousands of bluecoats on a merry chase that almost ended in disaster for Shelby at the Battle of Marshall.

This raid secured Shelby's reputation as one of the greatest raiders of the Civil War, yet it is often overlooked like so many other exciting events in the Trans-Mississippi Civil War. Two earlier raids he was on, led by General Marmaduke, are also covered.

Shelby was on Price's 1864 invasion of Missouri and is mentioned briefly in my Civil War novel A Fine Likeness. Shelby makes an appearance in the as-yet-unnamed sequel. One of the protagonists in that book is in Shelby's Iron Brigade, but deserts in order to fight the war within the war, the supernatural battle between Order and Chaos. The second book will be out sometime in 2012.