Thirteen-year-old Daniel "Powder Monkey" Leclair looked up from the muddy Mississippi River. Behind him, rafts with huge siege mortars lay anchored in the stream. In minutes, he would be carrying powder to those guns.

But now, coming toward him and tapping the ground with a cane, was a beautiful young girl with red hair.

"As you can see, I am blind," she said.

There had been many surprises in this American Civil War. Still, Daniel had never expected this....a blind girl with red hair and freckles. His life was about to change.

This is his story....a young boy at war on the muddy Mississippi River in the late winter of 1862. It is also the story of soldiers, sailors, Marines, and escaped slaves fighting to save a nation.

It is a tale of the battle for Island Number 10.