Two aging Civil War veterans mourned the death of their sons at a joint funeral in Knoxville National Cemetery. One, a cavalry general, had fought for the Union. The other had served as surgeon/major of a Confederate cavalry regiment. They met for the first time at the graves of their sons—two army lieutenants and University of Tennessee graduates, killed together in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Newspaper accounts presented the encounter as an example of reconciliation between North and South.

This book recounts the meeting of two families from opposing sides of the war—both rooted in East Tennessee, a region harshly divided by the conflict—placing their story in the context of America's reconciliation narrative at the end of the 19th century.