In the Thick of It

IN THE THICK OF IT is a biographical sketch of a teenage boy forced to leave school as the Civil War is about to begin. Joining the Union Army as a drummer boy, he survives through three major campaigns over four years.

Landing in the coal counties of Eastern Pennsylvania following the War, 18-year-old C. Ben Johnson builds a career at the confluence of the country's westward expansion, the birth of the industrial revolution, the rise of anthracite coal and the steel industry, the historic w...