In this seventh volume of the ten-volume Civil War Battle Series, the
action spans the area from Pennsylvania and Virginia to Georgia,
Mississippi, and Illinois.The seven members of the Brannon clan of
Culpeper County, Virginia, experience a wide range of the many hardships
of war. The Southern setbacks of July 1863 have fallen hard on the
Brannons, for two sons were with Lee in Pennsylvania and one was at
Vicksburg. They still mourn the loss another, Titus, presumed dead but
actually interned in a Northern prison camp for seven months.
Mac Brannon, in Stuart's cavalry, helps to protect the Army of Northern
Virginia as it withdraws to Virginia. Of special concern to him are the
ambulance wagons, one of which carries his wounded brother, Will. In
Vicksburg, Cory Brannon recuperates from an illness, and as his health
returns he looks for ways to escape the Union occupation and join Nathan
Bedford Forrest's cavalry. In the Yankee prison camp outside of Chicago,
Titus is determined to escape and make his way home. He does not yet
know the price of his freedom. Cory and his comrades connect with
Forrest just in time for the action at Chickamauga. Although the battle
goes well for the Confederates, Forrest and his commander, Braxton
Bragg, have a falling out. Circumstances dictate that Cory remain with
Braxton Bragg in the Confederate camps that encircle Chattanooga, but
when Bragg decides to outwait the Union army trapped before him, the
scene is set for the arrival of a new Federal commander-U.S. Grant.
