OZARK BOLT: THE TRAIL TO CONFEDERATE GOLD Hardcover – December 8, 2025

OZARK BOLT unfolds across two interwoven timelines—one in the final, collapsing years of the Confederacy, the other in the modern Ozark mountains—each tied to a legendary treasure lost under fire, storm, and earth.As Union forces tighten their grip on the South in 1863–64, Confederate leaders secretly divide what remains of their treasury into three smelting depots: New Orleans, Tampa, and Atlanta. The gold is melted into bars and prepared for covert transport, meant as a last desperate effort to keep the Confederacy alive. But each attempt to move the bullion ends in disaster.In New Orleans, Commander Nathaniel Wade and Captain Joseph Creed load hundreds of bars aboard the CSS MAGNOLIA DAWN, destined for hidden negotiations in Jamaica. A violent, unnatural Gulf storm strikes; eerie green lightning tears through the ship, igniting fires and ripping apart masts. The Magnolia Dawn sinks with all hands and all treasure, disappearing into legend.In Tampa, Major Randal Floyd evacuates the second depot as Union gunboats shell the bay. With only forty bars ready, his escort flees inland along a decaying swamp road. A massive storm collapses the logging track, trapping the wagons. Seminole warriors ambush the column, killing nearly all. The gold-laden wagons slide into the bog, swallowed forever, while Floyd’s field journal is taken as a prize.In Atlanta, Brigadier General Aaron McBride and his aide Major Charles Campisi melt the final and largest store—over three tons of bullion. With Sherman’s armies closing every escape route, McBride abandons plans to meet a French blockade runner and instead leads a regiment west into the unmapped Ozarks. A storm forces them into a cave for shelter. A catastrophic landslide seals the entrance, entombing the men and the gold deep within the mountain. Their disappearance becomes folklore: the Lost Ozark Regiment.In the present day, lifelong friends Jeremy Reeves and Marco Mancini arrive in the Ozarks for a two-week backcountry trip. Jeremy, a cybersecurity specialist, seeks clarity and escape; Marco, a former Special Forces Green Beret, uses the wilderness to quiet old ghosts. Their girlfriends, Hunter and Liz, anchor their normal lives, though both men welcome the chance to unplug.A brutal storm hits their first night. Both men sense, half in dreams, the ground shifting somewhere in the valley. The next morning, the forest smells of freshly torn earth. Following the scent and Marco’s instincts, they hike toward the disturbance and discover a massive new landslide—one that has exposed a dark opening in the hillside. Within that shadow lies the sealed cave where McBride’s regiment vanished.Unbeknownst to them, something—or someone—is watching.OZARK BOLT blends historical mystery, survival suspense, and dual-timeline storytelling into a gripping narrative about fate, secrecy, and the land’s refusal to forget what men try to hide. The mountains have guarded their secret for 160 years. Now the truth is beginning to surface. Read more