Paul I. Wellman has penned a powerful novel about the long friendship and secret adventures of Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston—two titans of America’s most colorful era. This is a novel of “Old Hickory”, of his Indian-fighting days (when he met Houston), his battle that won New Orleans after the War of 1812 was over, the deal that did him out of the Presidency when John Quincy Adams won the election, his ultimate victory in 1834—of the man whom Sam Houston revered. It is also of Houston, who came to Washington as a Congressman, and found himself (as well as having a troublesome affair with the vain, selfish Peggy Eaton) defending Jackson, helping him fight his many battles, and finally going south to Texas, where he won freedom for and and became the guiding star of the wild, rising state.