The lands along the Kansas-Missouri border saw hostilities and violence years before the Civil War officially erupted in April of 1861. People had to choose a side as neutrality was not tolerated by either belligerent. Those who tried to stay out of the fight were swept away. After the Camp Jackson affair in St. Louis, a young merchant decides it is time to cast his lot with the secessionists to defend his home and business. Carried away from his mercantile by war, he finds the brief conflict he expected was not to be. The months become years of battles, deadly political intrigue, and a journey of thousands of miles. Suffering great loss in body and spirit, his search for retribution becomes something else entirely. This story is a historically true account of the South's waning years and Sterling Price's raid through Missouri in 1864. The battles and all the locations were real ones, as well as the characters with proper names.