The Two Flags; or, Love for the Blue, Duty for the Gray

"The Two Flags: Or, Love for the Blue, Duty for the Gray" By Col. Prentiss Ingraham. This serialized war romance combines frontier and military academy settings. In the opening section, a mysterious woman named Antonine arrives at a Texas ranch during a norther, revealing herself to the ranchero inside his cabin. She blackmails him into submitting his son's West Point cadetship appointment to her own son, threatening exposure of a past secret that would send him to the gallows. At West Point, two cadets—Dean Darrington and Antonio Dallas—quarrel over Dallas's dismissal for theft and conduct unbecoming a gentleman. Dallas threatens to expose Darrington's secret sweetheart in the village unless they duel. Darrington, expecting to resign his cadetship due to his father's death and his mother's illness, agrees to meet Dallas once his resignation is accepted. The narrative establishes conflicting loyalties between military ambition and family duty.