"King Cotton" is a novel set during the Civil War. Jack Bailey exports cotton out of Charleston and lands a job with Civil War photographer Mathew Brady. This brings him into contact with many famous people of the day, including Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Pinkerton, Harriet Tubman, P.T. Barnum & John Wilkes Booth. Although some of these associations suggest that Bailey was involved in the assassination, other than neglecting signs that were obvious in hindsight, he was not.