Ambition: The Wilson Turner Saga, Book One

It's December of 1860, and young Wilson Turner has only a year of "reading law" left before he can be admitted to practice and earn enough to marry the woman he loves, Charlotte Ann. But these are perilous times: next-door South Carolina has seceded from the Union. The incoming president has pledged to preserve the Union--by force if necessary. As war clouds gather, Wilson and Ann must navigate the rules and expectations of an archaic society to forge a union of their own. When fighting erupts and his home state joins its Southern sisters in battle, Wilson struggles with competing demands of love and loyalty, of duty, and of honor.
This is Book One of a trilogy, the Wilson Turner Civil War Saga. Book Two follows Wilson into the army, his initiation into the horrors of combat, and his un-willing rise to leadership as he struggles to do right by his men and return with honor to his beloved Ann. Book Three sees him face the ultimate challenge of command in the face of near-certain death at Gettysburg, recovery from a serious wound, and the crushing disappointment of losing--apparently--the woman he loves. As the war winds down to inevitable defeat, Wilson sees and seizes an unexpected opportunity to salvage some happiness for himself and Ann from the tide of death and despair sweeping over his homeland.