Captain Cyrus Harding served with honor in the Union Army until captured by the South, along with the remnants of his unit, after a skirmish north of Atlanta in 1864. Knowing that the Confederate forces assigned to guard him and his men were overtaxed and underfed, he hoped to escape before they would be transferred to a larger camp, and rejoin the fight against the rebellion. Spying a large balloon across the courtyard from their prison, Captain Harding made a wild plan of escape, which worked...sort of.His men, with the assistance of a civilian war correspondent, were able to take the balloon and lift off in the midst of a tremendous storm. The storm, however, blew them (and an unwilling Rebel passenger) well beyond the battlefield - and out over the Pacific Ocean - before coming down. Captain Harding would find his command abilities taxed to the extreme as he struggled to help the men survive on an uncharted island filled with strange beasts and plants. Show less «