The smoke had just cleared from the last volley of musketry at Gettysburg. Nearly 70 percent of the First Minnesota Regiment lay dead or dying on the field - one of the greatest losses of any unit engaged in the Civil War. Pale horse at Plum Run is the study of this single regiment at this crucial moment in American history. Through painstaking research of firsthand accounts, eyewitness reports, and official records, Brian Leehan constructs a narrative remarkable for its attention to detail and careful reportage.

I had been sleeping with a dead man -- The morning of a better hope -- The best we had in the shop -- What meaner place could man be put in? -- My god, are these all the men we have here? -- Behold! a pale horse -- Dead men and horses lying all around me -- We just rushed in like wild beasts -- The funeral of our regiment.