After the end of the Civil War, former rivals, John Demsond and Jason Alexander, team up to help Jason's father, John T. Alexander, a.k.a. the Cattle King, bring thousands of longhorn cattle out of Texas to feed the hungry people in Chicago and New York. Demsond finds himself embroiled in a web of conflicts and killings that threaten to constrict the entire nation's recovery. Mysterious deaths, likened to those of an earlier plague that ravaged Europe, destroy friendships and fortunes, and the country slips into the devastating Panic of 1873. A tantalizing blend of fact and fiction, J.D. Proffitt's second novel is a sequel to his first story titled "Manchester Bluff: A Civil War Novel." Both books unveil elements of the past, long ago forgotten, but relevant today. J.D. Proffitt is an assistant professor at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois - his second career following many years in cellular telephone engineering management. He was raised in the small town of Alexander, Illinois, a location that plays a prominent role in his second novel. For more information about J.D. Proffitt, go to www.jdproffittbooks.com.