Autumn, 1864. Rebel bushwhackers have seized and looted a small town in Missouri. Wounded and left for dead by his half-brother, seventeen-year-old Owen Wainwright is captured and conscripted by the Confederate Army. As the troops blacksmith, he witnesses the horrors of war firsthand: the savagery of General Selbys Iron Brigade, the massacres of Union troops, the bloody battles at Lexington, Westport, and Mine Creek. Against all odds, Owen survives with the help of an unlikely ally -- a new friend in arms and the only person he trusts. But if fate is cruel, war can be crueler. . . .
