Young Spencer Kellogg Brown was ready to fight for the Union well before the war broke out. He joined the struggle in "Bleeding Kansas" in the late fifties and when war did break out, he joined the Union Navy on the gunboat Essex. Infiltrating Rebel lines on secret assignments, he came close to execution more than once. He heard the guns of the Battle of Shiloh while with Confederate troops. In this exciting true story, Brown's own journal and letters to family are the source of the drama and humor of war. Gunboat battles, meetings with Grant, Stanton, Admiral Porter, and others punctuate a compelling tale of extreme danger and risk. Admiral Porter later worked feverishly to get Brown exchanged before the date of his execution. This story of a forgotten hero is one of the best of the Civil War.