In the midst of a prolonged and deadly American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln appoints a very different kind of general, Ulysses S. Grant, Chief of Union Forces. Grant acts decisively, bringing total war to the pristine Shenandoah Valley, breadbasket of the South.

On the day of the Battle of New Market, Confederate General John C. Breckenridge, former Vice President of the United States, and commander of southern forces in Valley, is faced with a horrible decision: whether or not to put young cadets from the Virginia Military Institute into harm's way.

Followed by a Q&A with writers Thomas Farrell and David Kennedy, and co-producer Jeff Canavan