Your war is not just. But it makes you a hero. Nathaniel Starbuck is the son of an exceedingly devout pastor from Boston. The father hates the South and he hates sin. But Nate loves women, and after a scandal, he sees no way out but to flee to Virginia to his college friend Adam. War is in the air, and the good citizens of Richmond nearly lynch the young man from the North as a spy. Nate is saved by Adam's father: Washington Faulconer is a wealthy man. He has enough land and money to raise his own regiment. And Nate, out of admiration, first becomes an officer, then a war hero, but ultimately turns into a bitter enemy of his benefactor. The beginning of Bernard Cornwell's grand epic of the American Civil War. The Starbuck Chronicles, Volume 1.