Fear and brutality grip Columbia, South Carolina, in the harsh winter of 1865 as General William Tecumseh Sherman continues his fiery march to the sea and advances on the capital city where secession began. John Mark Sibley-Jones's By the Red Glare takes us into the lives of representative citizens - black and white, men and women, Confederates and Unionists, civilians and combatants, freed and shackled, sane and insane - on the eve of historic destruction.

John Mark Sibley-Jones teaches English at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville. Prior to moving to Greenville, he taught English literature for fifteen years at the University of South Carolina, where he won several teaching awards, including the Michael A. Hill Outstanding Honors Faculty Award. Sibley-Jones has published more than fifty academic and professional articles and two short stories. He has been a finalist in several national fiction competitions. This is his first novel.