The Last Cartridge

About the Book

  The year is 1863 and the French Emperor Napoleon III is attempting to impose a Gallic empire on Mexico while the United States is involved in the Civil War.  From the beginning in early 1862, however, his campaign for a swift victory goes awry and ends in disaster at Puebla on Cinco de Mayo.

    It is again this dramatic background that Sergeant Owen Wilde and the French Foreign Legion Regiment arrive to reinforce the Napoleonic Army.  A one-time Irish rebel and officer in both the British Army and Union Army's Irish Brigade, Wilde is an enigmatic soldier-of-fortune who resigned his American commission after the bloody battle of Antietam the year before.

   Wilde's adventures spin out under a roiling mix of blistering Aztec sky, lethal fever, French panache and Mexican valor.  The story is replete with numerous clashes climaxing in the Legion's 3rd Company's historic fight to the last man against 2,000 troops of Benito Juarez at Camerone.  Intertwined are myriad conspiracies and intrigues involving several factions, as well as a series of romantic interludes.

Soon, Wilde begins to suspect that he is fighting on the wrong side in the bitter war, but the Legion is his country, not France, and he must decide whether to remain faithful to its mission--even to the death.

About the Author

Boston native James W. Ryan is a veteran journalist who was employed by two daily newspapers and United Press International for many years. He is the author of 10 published books, mainly military history, and 15 ghostwritten books. Three of his books have been optioned to film companies and his work has been published in 12 countries. Author Tom Clancy praised his Shinano! Sinking Japan's Secret Supership as: "A brilliant snapshot of the war at sea and the men who fought it."