The fall of Vicksburg made the Mississippi a Yankee river, eclipsing all rational Southern hope of prevailing in the War. But Richmond's refusal of defeat, its bloodhound herding of backland "recruits" as of a lesser species, aroused a fierce and widespread rejection of further blood sacrifice. The towns and villages of the Pineys closed protectively about their sons and fathers, husbands and brothers-all that remained of a future, Lee Christmas was born in the War and shaped by the bloody chaos of the Peace that followed. As a youngster, he comes to admire James Mann, once a slave but now a Black warrior. For the Blacks had been compelled to form their own military in self-defense. After a pitched battle between James' Black force and a "Regulator" force of Whites ends in a standoff and inferno, James is obliged to flee North, leaving his family behind. Years later, when James returns to recover his wife and children, Lee Christmas, now the Master of a river-schooner, hides James away to spirit him to safety from his enemies.