This novel is a carefully researched, factually accurate account of the small, but important Civil War Battle of New Market. The action takes place in the picturesque Shenandoah Valley of Virginia in the pouring rain on May 15, 1864. A cast of historical characters present the narrative from multiple viewpoints. It is a coming-of-age chronicle of the part taken by 258 untried teenage cadets from the Virginia Military Institute. In their initial foray into the maelstrom of war fate places them face-to-face against the veterans of the 34th Massachusetts, a battalion of well-trained infantry ably led by a former judge from Boston. This is the only instance in American history where the whole student body of a college fought as a single combat unit. The significance of the battle is determined by time and place. While Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee are locked in a deadly struggle near Richmond, across the Blue Ridge a small Confederate force confronts a numerically superior Union army. If the Federals can defeat the Rebels they can sweep down on Lee’s unprotected left flank and possibly end the war. Major General John C. Breckinridge, a Kentuckian and former vice president of the US, commands the Confederate army. In charge of the Federals is Major General Franz Sigel, an emigre from Baden and political appointee. Despised by Generals Halleck and Grant, Sigel has been given command of the Department of West Virginia by President Abraham Lincoln, who hopes to garner enough German votes in November to win re-election. John S. Wise, the 17-year-old son of a former governor of Virginia, and Moses Ezekiel, a state cadet with hopes of becoming a world-renowned sculptor, give voice to the thoughts and anxieties of the cadets. The viewpoints of Confederate officers are presented by Breckinridge; Captain Charles Woodson, a Missourian and former bushwhacker; and Captain John Hanse McNeill, a partisan ranger fighting a personal war against the West Virginia Swamp Dragons and the B&O Railroad. Speaking for the Union are Colonel George Wells, commander of the 34th Massachusetts; Colonel David Strother, a West Virginian with a touchy ego who writes for Harper’s Magazine; and First Lieutenant Henry A. DuPont, an energetic and brilliant artilleryman who graduated first in his class at West Point in 1861. After the war, the conduct of the cadets in their time of trial became a pillar of the mythology of the Lost Cause.
