Joshua Logan, shunned because of his stuttering, leaves his sweetheart Sarah Spivey and his family to seek revenge for his brother who is killed at Bull Run. He joins his schoolmates in the Pennsylvania 222nd Volunteer Infantry. In their baptism of fire at Antietam, he saves his squad from capture by the Confederates, where they fight hand to hand in the cornfield. Promoted to sergeant, he leads his men through skirmishes and battles. Sarah comes to Fredericksburg to nurse her brother who was badly wounded when the regiment is defeated in a breathtaking battle at the stone wall on Marye's Heights. Tension builds and she rejects Josh. Logan is devastated but devotes his time to training new recruits. When the Union Army is defeated at Chancellorsville Private Logan, who was court marshaled by a scheming officer and one of his men, makes a heroic stand with the rear guard. Severely wounded, he is faced with the decision to save himself or help the soldier who took his stripes. If he survives he wonders if Sarah will come to nurse him as she did her brother. This is the first in a series of novels about the 222nd Pennsylvania Regiment and the men who fight for the Union.