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April 1865
It was spring and the bloodletting at Franklin was
done. General Lee surrenders and only General Johnston and his small
army of 21,000 stand in the way of complete victory by the Union Armies.
After the battle of Bentonville, Johnston has 2,606 less men.
Sam Atkins and 18,000 ragged Confederates wait at
Durham Station to see if they will have to again fight the well-armed
and rested Federals. Seeing no way out, Johnston surrenders, and after
giving up their rifles, Sam and his friend Leander, begin their long
walk home through a devastated South.
In a Southern patriot's barn they meet up with
Alabamian, George Forrest, who, through a series of odd circumstances,
fought with the North.
While cleaning his pistol Leander accidentally wounds
George. Sam reluctantly promises the mortally wounded George, the last
man to die in the Civil War, that he will go to Alabama and tell his
family what happened to him.
On his way home to Florida, Sam encounters a fleeing
Jefferson Davis, discovers a cache of Confederate gold, befriends a
freed slave, and meets his first love in a series of events that will
forever change his life.
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