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