Donald McCaig (1940-2018) is the award-winning author of Jacob’s Ladder, designated “the best civil war novel ever written” by The Virginia Quarterly. People magazine raved “Think Gone With the Wind, think ColdMountain.” It won the Michael Shaara Award for Civil War Fiction and the Library of Virginia Award for Fiction. He was selected by the estate of Margaret Mitchell to write the Gone with the Wind follow up novels Rhett Butler's People and Ruth's Journey.