Kirjahaku

Returning to Natchez, Mississippi, with money, Solomon Witcher reunites with family and friends. The Dundee family and Solomon disagree over treatment of slaves after Solomon announces his engagement in the slave trade. Solomon informs Sawyer of his premonitions of the upcoming war, of the death of someone close to him, and of a visit with Miriam at Clifton when she calls him a traitor. War erupts, and Sawyer and Solomon volunteer to serve the Confederacy and go their separate ways. As the war progresses, Laura Dundee, Stelcie Dundee, Miriam, and other Natchez citizens begin to feel its intrusion on the home front. The two cousins meet by chance during the siege of Vicksburg when Solomon crosses the siege lines between the two armies. Sawyer and Solomon talk with soldiers from Avoyelles Parish (LA), hear wounded soldiers discuss a female redheaded healer at Windsor Plantation, and endure the Union bombardment and share the hardships of the siege. Back in Union territory Solomon finds Zethro in a stockade, and the two men meet with Miss Tree, who relates cryptic words about Egiap. Zethro tells Solomon about what happened at Windsor Plantation as they search for Egiap, who has left an enigmatic missive. Still inside the Confederate lines at Vicksburg, Sawyer encounters some North Louisiana yeoman farmers, meets Xenophanes, and recruits a young soldier to participate in counter-tunneling at the Louisiana Redan. Sawyer is part of the surrender of Vicksburg and becomes a prisoner-of-war.

Solomon Witcher is seen by relatives at Rosalie, the Federal headquarters, and thought to be a traitor to the Confederate cause and a spy for the Yankees. Solomon visits Clifton to see Miriam, who calls him a traitor and dismisses him from the property. Soon afterward the Surgets give a dinner banquet for Union civilian officials and military officers. They note the Yankee chief engineer for fortifications is not in attendance. Solomon travels to Vicksburg in order to facilitate a prisoner exchange for Sawyer Dundee. The Surgets are notified that Clifton will be the primary site for Federal defenses and will be razed to the ground. Solomon and Sawyer return to Natchez. Sawyer assures the family and friends that Solomon is not a traitor but a spy for the Confederate Secret Service. The two cousins tell stories about Vicksburg's camel, Old Douglas; the surrender tree; a black CSA sharpshooter; and Whistling Dick, a unique CSA cannon. The two young cousins return to the war. Laura and Stelcie visit Beulah and others at the Natchez Corral, an enclosed camp for contrabands. Zethro finds his way back to Miss Tree and TaSondryana. Egiap, on the run from the Yankees and ill with fever, is found by Abdoulaye, who takes her to Miss Tree for healing. Stelcie and Laura take a lachrymatory bottle to Gay Anne, a friend at Elms Court. Egiap, Zethro, and TaSondryana travel to the Dundee homestead at Natchez and are arrested there by the Yankees. Solomon is sent on a mission to infiltrate the Loyal Order of Heroes of America, the Red Stringers. Solomon encounters Takouhi, a beautiful woman official of the Red Stringers. Sawyer awakens at Sully Farm, VA, after a train crash and realizes he has only selective memory. He falls in with Mosby's partisans. Egiap, who was separated from Zethro and TaSondryana, is transported to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D. C. Solomon's next assignment puts him in Washington, D. C., where he unexpectedly meets Takouhi, who pulls him into a conspiracy to assassinate Jefferson Davis and others. Solomon then recons the Union logistical facilities at City Point, VA, that support Grant's siege at Petersburg, and presents his information to other CSA agents who plant a bomb in the military depot. Solomon now decides to go rogue on a mission to assassinate President Lincoln.