On the eve of the Civil War, Kirby Jensen is the youngest of three children living on a hardscrabble ranch in Southwestern Missouri. But in 1861 shots were fired in Charleston harbor, and Kirby's father and brother went to war. Back at home, waves of violence crash over Kriby and his family, until the boy quickly becomes a man, riding with Brigg's Marauders, coming up against violent killers like Frank and Jesse James, and proving his own skill with...

Smoke Jensen: the beginning -- In 1861, shots were fired in Charleston Harbor, and Kirby Jensen's father and brother went off to war. From raging Civil War battles to border state raids to the kind of frontier justice achieved only by bullets and blood, Kirby Jensen journeys into a manhood shaped by violence and a young man's thirst for justice. Filled with actual historical events and legendary characters, the story of Smoke Jensen's early years...