Oliver Ellis: Or, The Fusiliers
1861
A boy raised among soldiers, Oliver Ellis has known nothing but the drumbeat of military life. Born in General Burgoyne's camp during the American Revolutionary War, he has grown up on tales of his father's bravery and the harsh poetry of camp discipline. His mother, who lost her husband to the wars, watches her son with growing dread as his dreams of soldiering take hold. She sees clearly what Oliver has yet to understand: that the glory he imagines is built on the same ground that swallowed his father. The novel follows Oliver's transformation from wide-eyed boy to young man, tracing the moment when romantic notions of duty collide with the actual weight of a soldier's boots. Grant writes with intimate knowledge of military life, capturing both its brutal machinery and its strange camaraderie. This is a story about inheritance: not just of rank or regiment, but of the questions that pass between generations about what we owe family and what we owe country.
