The Chesapeake Command finds shipwreck, Indian raids and the threat of war with Great Britain confronting two U.S. Navy officers, one Irish, one black, in the Pacific Northwest on the eve of the American Civil War. Rory Dunbrody and Tobias St. John, sea officers and best friends, are thrust into armed confrontation with the British over possession of remote San Juan Island. Only deft diplomacy averts a shooting war. Then, these two comrades from the lowest social orders of the day are separated by the advent of civil war. Rory, now a Confederate lieutenant, and Tobias, a Union sailing master, struggle to maintain their friendship as they battle the enemy, and one another, in New Orleans, Chesapeake Bay and on the Carolina coasts.
