The Bullet’s Flight from Powder to Target: The Internal and External Ballistics of Small Arms (1909)

Combining the aAmerican Dreama with the construction of the transcontinental railroad, Destinyas Daughter captures the hearts of many would-be adventurers. As the Union Pacificas parallel bands of gleaming silver painstakingly approach the mighty Rockies, aHell on Wheelsa towns spring up across the once desolate plains while the rip-roaring cattle towns of Ellsworth and Dodge boom into existence. In 1867, Tom OaLeary, driven by a wanderlust spirit, joins a young Cleve Armstrong on the construction crew of the Union Pacific, leaving his family to care for the Kansas farm. Despite the unavoidable droughts, relentless blizzards and inevitable tornadoes, the family manages to thrive without him. Subsequent years find the lives of the OaLeary childrenaenchanting Amanda, Billy, Katy and Johnny, criss-crossed with tragedy as well as filled with the thrill and excitement of the wild, raucous West. As it introduces the OaLeary family and its fight to survive, Destinyas Daughter captures the hearts and souls of the men and women who had the courage and stamina to tame the barren Midwest.