A history of the Reconstruction years as told through the lives of ten great Confederate leaders, and what happened to each of them after the Civil War.

Robert E. Lee: quiet gentleman --Matthew Fontaine Maury: the man who ran away -- John C. Breckinridge: militant moderate -- Nathan Bedford Forrest: man on horseback -- Alexander H. Stephens: the South's conscience -- L.Q.C. Lamar: artificer of reconciliation -- "Old Joe" Johnston: subdued but unrepentant -- Wade Hampton: redeeming arm -- James Longstreet: the reconstructed -- Jefferson Davis: the unreconstructible.