Volume I of a trilogy, this historical/magical realism novel is a meditation upon the life and times of Micajah Autry, the author's ancestor who died at the Alamo. Starting with the narrative's frame set in winter 1915, the novel flashes back to the hero's youth when he served with General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. The exciting action includes encounters with Marie Laveau, voodoo queen of New Orleans who becomes Micajah Autry's soulmate and major love interest, a duel with the pirate Jean Lafitte, the painful separation of the lovers, Marie's imprisonment by Pierre Lafitte, her meeting with the depressed and dying Napoleon Bonaparte. The frame of the novel concerns the journey from Beaumont, TX, to San Antonio made by the dying daughter of Micajah Autry in 1915 when she wishes to perform one final ceremony at the Alamo for her heroic father. Along the way she and her care-taker nephew encounter a cast of con artists including claimants to the legend of Jesse James, aspirants to sports stardom, and a man of the cloth. This work is as much homage to writers such as Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and W.P. Kinsella as to the heroes of the Texas Revolution as it weaves the satiric, poetic, minimalist and magical realism of these writers into a story which moves in time from the War of 1812 to the New Orleans of our day. The myths and legends clash with the facts as the truth evades us like so many fireflies on a spring evening. This volume contains a prologue and chapters 1-16. Volume II called "The Hero's Return," contains chapters 17-34. Volume III called "Thirteen Days," contains chapters 35-49 and an epilogue. These last two volumes will come out shortly after Volume I.