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The South had won a resounding victory at Manassas in July of 1861. Since then, however, the fledgling nation has lost huge chunks of territory and strategic military outposts. Jefferson Davis is repeatedly forced to fight with limited supplies of war materials and without reserves. Enemies from the North are not the Confederate president's only problem. He also has to contend with his proliferating political enemies, and he is forced to face them from an increasingly weakening position. His staunchest ally, Judah Benjamin, who played the martyr and took the blame for the loss of Roanoke Island, also comes under attack, and Davis is forced to make some difficult decisions regarding his minister. Moreover, Benjamin's attraction to the First Lady continues to develop as the two are often thrown together socially and politically. Once, when they are working on a coded message to the Confederate minister in France, she breaks into tears and admits to Benjamin that her husband is cold and aloof. He moves to comfort her, but she breaks away and asks him to leave. In the meantime, Davis' slave, Rachel, has permitted herself to get romantically involved with Colonel Chestnut's body servant, Lawrence, in an attempt to forget Silas, the beau she left behind at Davis' plantation. Silas, however, has run away and joined the Union army. Because of his ties to Rachel, the Union sends him to Richmond to get her to listen in on conversations in the Confederate White House. He manages to displace Lawrence and enlists Rachel's help just before General Lee, President Davis, and his ministers gather in the White House to discuss Lee's plans to invade the North. Once again, masters and slaves, politicians and generals are inextricably bound together. This time their individual fortunes are propelled relentlessly toward Lee's fated meeting with the Union army at Gettysburg.