How Can a Man Die Better

How Can A Man Die Better is an epic tale of betrayal, murder, and revenge during the time of the American Civil War. In the wretched London slums of 1837, orphan Lyman Dunnock, caught in the act of escaping his cruel apprentice-master, accidentally kills the old silvermaker. At age 13, using forged papers, he joins the British East India Company Army and flees the country. By age 15, Lyman is a veteran officer fighting Pashtun warriors in the Afghanistan mountains where he is the sole survivor of the Massacre of Elphinstone's Army. Following the Siege of Cawnpore in 1857, Lyman moves to the United States to find another vocation. Francois Devol comes of age in the 1830s New Orleans waterfront, in a gang whose crimes range from grave robbing to kidnapping. Powerful and violent, but illiterate and crude, Devol is befriended by a slave owning grand dame of New Orleans, Delphine LaLaurie and her demonic husband. Soon, Devol is inflicting ruthless discipline on her slaves and she is teaching him reading, writing, and French Quarter high society deportment. Bright and ambitious, Devol is soon foreman of a slave auction business. By 1846, he is a wealthy slave dealer, illegally importing thousands of slaves from Brazil and Cuba. In 1861, as civil war looms in the U. S., Ardent Donegan visits her wealthy, Northern industrialist uncle. She unwittingly interrupts a meeting of some very powerful men, who, unbeknownst to her, have connections to a powerful secret society plotting dark conspiracies against the U.S. government. In the summer of 1862, Cage Carew is a self-admitted Bohemian and soft handed academic, breezily disinterested in the growing War. His indolent life is shattered when two young women are found viciously murdered. The immediate suspects are Devol and his ominous slave catchers who have pursued a fugitive into Ohio. Devol has disappeared into Dixie, and Cage vows vengeance. Cage's friends, already considering enlisting, conclude their best chance of locating Devol in the South is with the Army, and the men enlist in the Gallant Dan McCook's 52nd Ohio Infantry Regiment. Col. McCook has sworn his own vengeance against a Confederate bushwhacker, Frank Gurley, who has been accused of murdering McCook's defenseless brother. The Ohio men are assigned to Captain Lyman Dunnock, a dashing survivor of many battles and an expert in guerrilla warfare and close combat. With McCook's blessing, Lyman transforms his company into an elite unit of scouts and snipers, lethal and accomplished in uncoventional warfare. They are assigned to eliminate the murderous roving Confederate raiders in the wild, remote mountains of Tennessee and Georgia. Cage forges an especially close bond with Lyman, and under Lyman's tutelage, Cage becomes a warrior. He is ferocious against the Rebels at the bloody killing fields from Perryville to Chickamauga to Kennesaw Mountain, and relentless in his pursuit of Francois Devol, who now leads a band of the worst bushwhackers. Told through colorful vignettes, many featuring historical characters, such as Col. John T. Wilder, Sam Watkins, Col. McCook, Nathan Bedford Forrest, or even literary ones, like Sir Harry Flashman, Cage and his comrades pursue Devol's guerrillas. Following a trail of murder and depravity hidden in the brutal partisan warfare, there are several close calls, but each time, Devol slips away. At the War's end, Devol abets Confederate President as he empties the Confederate banks of their gold. Back in Ohio, Cage receives word that Devol and his gang have assembled in the Okefenokee Swamp and heads off to one last battle. When he arrives in the massive, untamed swamp, he finds Seraphine Passibone, a beautiful New Orleans octoroon who has long planned her own vengeance against Devol. Groomed by mysterious voodooienne Marie Laveau, Seraphine also has plans for the millions in Confederate gold Devol is guarding.