Johann Walbrecht, a young Germanic hunter/soldier, is immersed in medical training at Marburg University when he is forced to flee his country after a pistol duel with the son of the region's Baron. He has no idea the course of his life is about to change forever. It is November 1840 when he boards a ship bound for America. Four months later, John arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana aboard the slave ship he has worked on keeping the captives alive. He buys four slaves, eats a hearty meal at a French restaurant, drinks too much, and is eventually robbed of the gold eagles gifted to him by ship's captain. So begins Hessian John's new and unpredictable adventure. He acquires Mississippi riverside land neighboring Joseph Davis (older brother of Jefferson Davis), completes his medical training, and is recruited as an army surgeon during the Mexican War of 1847. John soon becomes one of the earliest doctors to challenge the longstanding problem of poor sanitation in military camps and field operations. In the first of a four-book series, a frontier doctor embarks on a coming-of-age journey in the American South before the Civil War and participates in historical events that soon lead the direction of both his career and his life."