Red River - Tapa dura

A life-long resident of New Mexico, P.G. Nagle has a special love of the outdoors, particularly New Mexico's wilds, where many of her stories are born. Her Far Western Civil War series of novels includes Glorieta Pass, The Guns of Valverde and Galveston.

Nagle's work has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and in several anthologies. Her short story “Coyote Ugly” was honored as a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Award.

Praise for the Civil War novels of P. G. Nagle

Galveston:

"In Galveston P.G. Nagle does for the Civil War in the West what Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain did for the Carolinas-only she does it much better! Nagle takes us into the characters' hearts as well as into the horror of America's worst self-inflicted disaster. We eagerly await her next work!"
--W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear, authors of People of the Owl

"Nagle's textured depiction of battlefields and society balls--and her keen understanding of the psychology of both of these proving grounds--should once again please her fans and other Civil War buffs."
--Publishers Weekly

The Guns of Valverde:

"Lauded for her research as well as her terrific storytelling skills, Nagle gives life and depth to characters on both sides of the battle lines while telling a host of secondary tales. Pointing out human foibles as well as detailing the hardships and the horrors of war, this is a worthwhile read."
--Booklist

"P. G. Nagle has found her niche writing about the Civil War in the West, much to the delight of New Mexicans, Civil War buffs, and fans of Western novels. Her novels, however, are not so much stories of war as they are insightful looks at the effects of war on people."--New Mexico Magazine

Glorieta Pass:

"Strong characters you can't help but like, a feel for both the times and the terrain of the old Southwest, and plenty of action-P. G. Nagle has written a bell-ringer!"
--David Nevin, author of 1812 and Treason

"Glorieta Pass is a crackling good story with its climax in the Civil War battle of Glorieta Pass, often called 'the Gettysburg of the West.' Through the protagonists and the narrative the author provides a vivid portrait of the Southwest frontier in the first year of the Civil War."
--James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom

A Creole belle, mistress of a thousand slaves in the heart of Louisiana . . .
A Texan Confederate, grieving for lost friends and family as he battles the Yankee army . . .
A Union carpenter in the Navy who dreams of piloting a Federal gunboat . . .

Their lives entwine at Belle View Plantation, where the Red River flows into the Mississippi and the Civil War becomes a maelstrom.

P. G. Nagle, "author of some of the best fiction written about Texas history" (Edward T. Cotham, Jr., author of Battle on the Bay: The Civil War Struggle for Galveston), writes with power and poignancy of a bloody campaign little chronicled but of great strategic to both North and South. The Confederate victory at Galveston harbor at the dawning of 1863 is merely a prelude to a bitter contest for control of the Mississippi and Red Rivers, which together form the Confederacy's most vital lifeline of supply and trade.

For the South, the Mississippi and the Red River afford the only viable corridor for moving the cotton it must trade for munitions, supplies, and much-needed funds from European allies. The Union seeks to cut off such external support to the South and to hasten the end of a war that has already claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides and that threatens to further debilitate a divided nation.

The Federal Navy sends a fleet of gunboats up the Red River in a daring attempt to seize control of the waterway, while on land Sibley's Brigade of Texans joins Confederate General Richard Taylor's defense of Louisiana's rich plantation country. Nagle tells the story of the struggle for dominance among the bayous and rivers of the Mississippi basin in an authoritative narrative both unflinching and compassionate, adding yet another memorable chapter to the chronicle of the Civil War fought in the Far West.