John J. Dwyer

Robert E. Lee

His father, "Light Horse Harry" Lee, was one of George Washington's greatest commanders in the Revolutionary War. He himself is considered the best soldier in the American army by its commander for his exploits in the Mexican War. He decries slavery, initially opposes secession, and is offered command of the Northern, not Southern, armies, by Abraham Lincoln. Still, he cannot raise his hand against his family and his homeland, and his fabled combination with Stonewall Jackson creates the most electrifying fighting force on earth, the Army of Northern Virginia. But the war will take his home, some of his family, his health, and his country, and for all his military brilliance, it is as a peacemaker, during the final years of his life, that he accomplishes his greatest feats.

Agnes Lee

Lee's beautiful, tormented daughter, from whom the war has taken the best friend of her life, her saintly, beloved sister Annie, and rendered her cousin Orton, the heroic but troubled love of her life, missing in action.

Mary Lee

Lee's crippled, pain-racked wife of more than thirty years, great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, for whom the loss of old Arlington, her sacred family homestead, may prove the final blow she cannot bear.

Wayne Marley

Protege of Stonewall Jackson, who leaves his Virginia home to fight for the North of his birth, first on the battlefield, then in the halls of the United States Congress.

Cole Culpeper

Vengeful son of the Shenandoah Valley who has lost home, family, and dreams to the rampaging Yankee armies and lives only to avenge them all.

Anne McDowell

Lovely scion of a Virginia plantation dynasty, whose beauty and charm are not enough to keep the war from changing everything she has known and loved.

Ethan McDowell

Anne's brother and Cole's one true friend, who blames Southern fire-eaters like his own father for the war, but who will fight to the death out of loyalty to General Lee.

Ulric Dahlgren

Handsome, daring son of one of the Union's most famous naval commanders, his audacious plan to attack Confederate capital Richmond sweeps engulfs both Wayne Marley and the Lee family and threatens to change the course of American history.

Jeb Stuart

Famed Confederate cavalry commander and hero of old Virginia, for whom General Lee is like the father he never had. His dashing bravery and legendary courage help keep alive a cause and a people teetering on the brink of destruction.