They came to Cordura

This intense 1960s historical novel chronicles the strange and violent journey of five brave men, a coward, and a woman suspected of treason across the Mexican desert. Set against the backdrop of the 1916 Punitive Mexico Expedition led by General John J. Pershing to capture Mexican revolutionist, Pancho Villa, Swarthout interrogates the nature of courage and of cowardice as his deeply flawed protagonist struggles to answer why some people seem to possess the mental or moral strength to be courageous, and others don’t.