At dawn, Captain Jonathan Weybridge sits 100 yards from his troop’s encampment. He wants privacy to write a letter to his wife, Emily. Weybridge was a young professor at Middlebury College in Vermont before the war; after enlisting in 1863, he spent most of his service in Washington, DC. In the spring of 1864, however, he led his fellow Vermonters into the active battles of Spotsylvania County and the Shenandoah, where rebel John Mosby’s men and aggressive Confederate General Jubal Early’s army presented significant dangers. Now, months later, he thinks of his wife and their two young sons. He dwells on a memory of seeing John Brown’s body, accompanied by Brown’s widow, in Vermont on its way to his final resting place in New York.

Eustis Marsh, lieutenant and helpful right-hand man to Weybridge, convinces Weybridge to come closer to the camp. Later that morning, Weybridge receives orders: His men are to be one of four companies to cross the Opequan River and storm the woods on the other side, with the short-term goal of taking Berryville. This is part of a much larger objective: to destroy or steal harvests before burning the fields and forests, preventing the valley’s continued use as a “granary” for Southern troops.

In the fight, Weybridge’s company is caught in enemy fire as they cross the water; he expects only infantrymen, but cannons with canisters (artillery in can-shaped containers that explode musket balls and shrapnel) surprise him, and a “massive blast” sends him and Marsh flying.

Libby has a meager dinner with Joseph, Sally, and Jubilee. She supports the South, though her family never enslaved others, and her husband freed the people enslaved by his father as soon as it became his choice to do so. She feels that enslavement is a “stain” on the South and wishes this war had not been visited upon her and her family, when enslavement is the sin of others.

The four discuss the need for ammunition for their new Colt revolver, and Jubilee suggests a neighbor, Leveritt Covington. Thinking about self-protection and teaching Jubilee to shoot to defend herself, Libby agrees to visit Covington if the nearby artillery sounds die down. Libby reflects on her husband, injured at Gettysburg and captured. She also thinks about their proximity to the North’s territory. With Winchester being north of Washington, DC, it was no wonder the nearby land had changed hands frequently during the war.

Later, Libby visits Covington. As she chats politely with the elderly man about the nearby fighting and the deterioration of both armies’ standards, Libby realizes that asking the man for ammunition is too risky; Covington will know a Colt must belong to a Mosby man or a Yankee, since no other fighters carried them. She also hears footsteps in the house but knows they are too heavy to belong to either Covington’s bedridden sister or his enslaved “house servant,” and she grows surer she cannot wholly trust Covington. She pretends instead that she came to ask for the old man’s thoughts on the election, the war, and the chances of Peter’s return.

Weybridge regains consciousness, but two fingers on his left hand are missing, and his right leg is barely attached from the thigh down. Marsh uses his canteen strap and ramrod to fashion a tourniquet, saving Weybridge’s life. Marsh and a few men carry Weybridge to the hospital tent. The doctor assesses Weybridge. He tells him the leg cannot be saved and they will “worry about [his hand] later” (49). Weybridge understands that he may not survive amputation long enough for the fingers to be a concern. They give him chloroform for the surgery.

Later, Weybridge awakens. A private tells him he is in the “nicest bedroom” of an abandoned rebel house. The private gives him opium and water. Time becomes unintelligible for Weybridge as he struggles against pain and infection, but at some point, the men assigned to stay with him flee to follow the departing army. Weybridge realizes he is alone. When he is able, he crawls to the window and hollers for help. Delirious, he can barely sleep once his opium runs out. He mourns that he will not be able to share literary greats like Dickens and Poe with his sons. He cannot tell how much time passes, but it is late at night when a woman arrives and stands in the bedroom doorway with a candle.

Libby realizes the man’s condition is dire and tells Joseph they will need a doctor’s help. She is appalled that the Northerners would leave a captain (like Peter and Robert) behind, but Joseph reminds her “the crime would be just as awful before God” if the man had been of lesser rank (62). Looking for beebalm that day at the abandoned house, Sally heard cries for help; upon hearing this, Libby decided to investigate.

She hopes the man has a gun she can add to her arsenal, but he doesn’t. She does not question taking the man home so that he does not die alone; it is simply something she must do. Libby and Joseph manage to support his physical weight as they descend the stairs; Libby is strong enough to help because of all the flour sacks she lifts. Feeling even more mired by responsibility at this turn of events, she reflects on the war’s emotional toll, thinking she will be gray before reaching the age of 25.