Sam Davis, the Hero of Tennessee

Summary

A lanky nineteen-year-old from Smyrna, Tennessee, trades the hush of campus corridors for the sulphuric haze of Fort Donelson, metamorphosing from bookish dreamer into courier of clandestine cartography; when Union ropes tighten around his neck, he swallows the names of comrades like communion wafers, choosing the gallows rather than betrayal, his silhouette dissolving into a crimson dusk that reeks of iron and lilacs.

Synopsis

A dramatic biography of Confederate hero Sam Davis. He joins the army at the news of Ft. Sumter; distinguishes himself in combat; becomes a spy; and is hanged because he will not expose his fellow spies.