"Drumbeats in the Valley" is a coming-of-age story set in the nation's oldest private military college. In 1838, eighteen-year-old Ben Walker leaves New Jersey to attend Norwich University, in Vermont. Before long he runs afoul of a fellow cadet who is also a pro-slavery southerner and a radical proponent of state's rights. Later Ben is asked to mentor a shy new student with a history of being bullied at private boarding schools in England. Despite...