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.