In this eighth volume of the ten-volume Civil War Battle Series, the
action returns to northern Virginia and Culpeper County. The long absent
Titus Brannon returns home on Christmas Day, 1863, just over a year
since his disappearance during the battle of Fredericksburg. As much as
his family is startled to learn that he is alive, he is surprised to
find that his wife, Polly, is now married to his brother Henry. And she
is pregnant.
Unwilling to accept Polly and Henry's marriage, Titus insists that Polly
is still his wife, and a judge agrees. He refuses to divorce her, and
later Polly's body is found at her father's plantation. The evidence
points to Titus, and he is arrested and jailed.
As spring approaches, Will Brannon recuperates from his Gettysburg wound
and returns to his regiment. In the meantime, a new commander leads the
Union army into northern Virginia--U.S. Grant. To block Grant's march on
Richmond, Robert E. Lee attacks. Grant, however, does not retreat after
this surprise engagement but marches on. The two armies clash again and
again, maneuvering ever closer to the Rebel capital.
Will throws himself into the battles with abandon. At last his pain ends
at the portentously named crossroads, Cold Harbor.
After Titus's innocence is proven, he joins the partisan rangers of John
S. Mosby. This guerrilla-style warfare suits his nature, and the rangers
so effectively harass the Federals in the rich farmland of the
Shenandoah that Grant dispatches a special force to squash Mosby. This
unit adopts a policy of total war in the valley so as to undercut
Mosby's support.
Titus vows vengeance on the Yankees for this wanton destruction, but
even he knows that there is little chance that the tide will be stemmed.
Both the Confederacy and the Brannons have suffered much in the year
1864. Now even the hotheaded Titus begins to wonder if the nation and
his family will survive into 1865.
