Chapter One takes place the day before the battle; it is narrated by Lieutenant Palmer Metcalfe, a cocky, 19 year old, aristocrat from New Orleans and a staff officer under Confederate commander Albert Sidney Johnston.

He watches as the Confederate army marches through the Tennessee countryside in preparation for a surprise attack upon the Union troops at Pittsburg Landing.

His self-satisfaction is evident as he remembers the complicated attack plan he helped draft, and as he thinks back on the struggles Johnston went through in bringing his army together for this decisive blow.

Chapter Two is the story of Captain Walter Fountain, an Ohio regimental adjutant in the Union Army encamped at Pittsburg Landing.

Through his thoughts, the reader learns about the Union army's slow but steady advance through Tennessee under the resolute leadership of Ulysses Grant.

As he commits his feelings and hopes to paper, he begins to notice that the birds and other woodland creatures have become noisier and more agitated.

Suddenly hundreds of Confederate soldiers burst out of the forest, charging headlong upon Fountain and the other unsuspecting Union troops.

His search for justification leads him to remember the days events: the shattering surprise attack, one failed attempt after another to stand and fight, the endless concussions of oncoming enemy shells, and finally his running away because "so much is enough but a little bit more is too much."

A former seminary student and soldier of fortune, Polly joined the army by reasoning, "I wasn't any better at being a bad man than I was a good one."

His mature and cynical perspective tells him that the Confederate army, even though successful on the first day, is fighting a poorly planned and badly coordinated battle.