It is late summer, 1862, and after beating off repeated northern attacks the Confederacy is at last invading the United States of America. The invasion is a gamble, pitting a small army against a huge one, and for its success Robert Lee will need every veteran soldier he can muster. Nathaniel Starbuck is one of those veterans, but instead of marching as the head of the Faulconer Legion, he has been given command of a Punishment Battalion, a unit composed of failures and cowards. Starbuck's enemies expect the appointment to be his ruin, and if he is to stand any chance of further success he must prove those enemies wrong by leading his ramshackle unit against the northern garrison at Harper's Ferry and then across the frontier to the bank of the Antietam Creek. There Starbuck will fight in what will prove to be the bloodiest day in American history.