Seventeen-year old Jack Malone worked with his father in his lobster and crabbing business in Cape Tinney, Maine. His dream was to go west while it was still wild. The year was 1860 and the winds of war were blowing. When Jack left home for St. Louis, Mo., he didn't count on taking on responsibility for a young unwed mother and baby but God had set the stage for a completely different direction for Jack's life. Falling in love and marrying the girl he came to love while on the riverboat "Silver Lady" on the way to St. Louis changed their lives whenever Julia came to inherit a 19,000-acre ranch in Central Texas. A crooked and cruel foreman had claimed her ranch after her uncle died and the battle to take it from him was enjoined. The resident evil on the ranch was a horror that was well-entrenched and would affect Jack, Julia and even little Angie. This is the beginning of a trilogy of how a boy with a very unusual talent and a keen gift for leadership became a man, well respected and even a legend in his own lifetime. Come with me now as I present to you this first of three books, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BLACKJACK MALONE (The War Years 1860-1865) Volume 1