This is volume four-incorporating the two novels The Shades of the Wilderness & The Tree of Appomattox, the seventh and eighth novels of a series of eight adventures which follow the momentous events, campaigns and battles of the great American Civil War between the Northern and Southern states. The central characters of the story are Harry Kenton-an officer in the Confederate Army and his cousin Dick Mason a young officer in a similar position fighting within the Union ranks. The narrative of the whole war is charted through the action which embraces many actual players in the real conflict. Beginning with First Bull Run and climaxing at Appomattox each novel tells the story from an alternate perspective-from the ranks of the Blue and then the Grey as the saga unfolds. Altsheler wrote another Civil War novel, Before the Dawn, concerning the fall of Richmond told from a Confederate perspective. Although this story is not strictly part of the series Leonaur have offered it as part of its five volume, nine novel collection of the author's Civil War adventures for collectors and readers in complementing designs and soft cover or hard cover.