Gordon D. Shirreffs, master of the Western action novel, turns his keen wit and skill toward two distinctly captivating tales of the American Civil War, told through the eyes of the young men who were duty bound to serve their country.

In Action Front!: At Gettysburg, on the hot and heavy first day of battle, Battery B-known as "Crispin's Bulldogs"-faces not only the fierce rebel lines but disastrous panic in a huge wheel horse on one of its own gun teams.

When Confederate metal finds its target, three figures in ill-fitting blue step from the war-shocked air to help serve the stricken gun. One underage, the second with a limp, and the third a half-pint, Ben Buell, Seth Pomeroy, and Zack Pascoe are the only members of their scattered company of Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia to answer at last the thrilling, terrible command of "Action front!" Allowed to remain with the gruff and grateful Bulldogs, little Zack becomes an assistant cook, Seth a gunnery corporal, and Ben, reunited with the horse that had been his pet back on the family farm, is made a wheel team driver.

In The Gray Sea Raiders, Shirreffs tells the tales of the daring men of the Confederate States Navy who were determined to harass, burn, or capture ships of the opposing Northern fleet as they plied the waterways of the Atlantic.

Overcoming numerous obstacles, including foul disease, Union retaliation, and ammunition problems, the crew of the vessel, Florida carried out its orders with great success and made young Clint Wallace a hero among his peers.

"Written by the hand of a master!" -The New York Times