In Culpeper, the Brannon family farm lies behind Union lines. Despite her mother’s admonitions, Cordelia remains intrigued by the attentions of a Yankee officer, whose only failing is the belief he cannot let the war end without experiencing combat.
Nathan Hatcher, now a so-called Galvanized Yankee, wears Union blue in the Dakota Territory. There he fights to survive both rugged winter weather and the fierce tribes who seek to repel the invaders from the region.
With the coming of spring in 1865, the war reaches its climax in Virginia, North Carolina, and Alabama. Mac is not far from the McLean house when Robert E . Lee meets with U. S. Grant. Cory is at hand, too, when Joseph E. Johnston parleys with Sherman. Titus, however, finds himself enmeshed in a complicated scheme regarding one of the darkest plots of the war.
Finally, among the war’s last victims is the Brannon farm itself. As carpetbaggers move into the South, this prime real estate is too good to leave in the hands of staunch Confederates. The Brannons must either fight or flee, and they have only so much fight left in them. The unsettled West holds more promise than the scarred and wrecked land of northern Virginia. Cory already has one foot in Texas, and the others are not far behind. Before departing, however, a mother must visit the grave of her firstborn at the lonely crossroads of Cold Harbor.
