Rembert Patrick's classic biography of Brigadier General Duncan Lamont Clinch is a study into the life of a man who helped shape early-nineteenth-century America. Clinch served in the War of 1812, led the attack on the "Negro fort" in Spanish Florida, and was in command at the beginning of the Second Seminole War, where he led American forces in the battle of the Withlacoochee. The book also focuses on Clinch as an aristocratic southerner who owned plantations in Georgia and Florida, served in Congress, and made an unsuccessful bid for the governorship of Georgia.