A Novel of the Civil War and the
Most Famous Female Militia in American History
Georgia burns.
Sherman’s Yankees are closing in.
Will the women of LaGrange run or fight?
Based on the true story of the celebrated Nancy Hart Rifles, The Cotillion Brigade is a sweeping epic of the Civil War’s ravages on family and love, the resilient bonds of sisterhood amid devastation, and the miracle of reconciliation between bitter enemies.
“Gone With the Wind
meets
A League of Their Own.”
Sixteen-year-old Nannie Colquitt Hill makes her debut in the antebellum society of the Chattahoochee River plantations. A thousand miles to the north, a Wisconsin farm boy, Hugh LaGrange, joins an Abolitionist crusade to ban slavery in Bleeding Kansas.
Five years later, secession and total war against the homefronts of Dixie hurl them toward a confrontation unrivaled in American history.
Nannie defies the traditions of Southern gentility by forming a women’s militia and drilling it four long years to prepare for battle. With their men dead, wounded, or retreating with the Confederate armies, only Captain Nannie and her Fighting Nancies stand between their beloved homes and the Yankee torches.
Hardened into a slashing Union cavalry colonel, Hugh duels Rebel generals Joseph Wheeler and Nathan Bedford Forrest across Tennessee and Alabama. As the war churns to a bloody climax, he is ordered to drive a burning stake deep into the heart of the Confederacy.
Yet one Georgia town—which by mocking coincidence bears Hugh’s last name—stands defiant in his path.
Read the remarkable story of the Southern women who formed America’s most famous female militia and the Union officer whose life they changed forever.
AVAILABLE ONLINE AND IN BOOKSTORES
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Awards
*** Laramie Award First Place for Best Americana Fiction ***
*** Foreword Magazine Indie Book-of-the-Year Finalist ***
*** Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choice Award ***
*** Military Writers Society of America Gold Medalist ***
*** IndieBRAG Medallion Honoree ***
*** InD’tale Magazine Crowned Heart for Excellence ***
*** Coffee Pot Book Club BOYTA Honorable Mention ***
*** Goethe Award Finalist for Best Post-1750 AD Fiction ***
*** 2022 RONE Award Nominee ***
“AUTHOR GLEN CRANEY MASTERFULLY CAPTURES THE ESSENCE OF NANNIE AND HUGH THROUGH DIALOGUE AND MULTILAYERED SCENES FORESHADOWING HOW THE STORY WILL END … THE STORY REFLECTS THE AUTHOR’S IMPECCABLE RESEARCH AND PASSION FOR THE SUBJECT [AND] WILL APPEAL TO READERS WHO ENJOY READING POIGNANT, CHARACTER-DRIVEN CIVIL WAR STORIES THAT WILL RESONATE IN THEIR MINDS LONG AFTER FINISHING THEM. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.”
— Historical Novel Society Magazine
“HISTORICAL FICTION AT ITS BEST: SOLID RESEARCH COMBINED WITH GREAT STORYTELLING.”
— Military Writers Society of America
“THE STORY IS RICH WITH DETAIL, WHICH WILL ENTRANCE YOU AND, WHILE YOU ARE DISTRACTED, CIRCLE AROUND AND CUT OFF YOUR ESCAPE, LEAVING YOU WITH NO CHOICE BUT TO KEEP READING UNTIL THERE ARE NO PAGES LEFT TO TURN…IT IS A BOOK THAT ONCE READ, IS IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.”
— The Coffee Pot Book Club
“[A] MUST READ! THE STORY IS BEAUTIFULLY TOLD…READERS WILL FEEL THEY ARE IN THE SCENES…A FANTASTIC JOURNEY.”
— InD’tale Magazine