Just a Piece of Red String II: Rebellion and Rectitude

Returning to Natchez, Mississippi, with money, Solomon Witcher reunites with family and friends. The Dundee family and Solomon disagree over treatment of slaves after Solomon announces his engagement in the slave trade. Solomon informs Sawyer of his premonitions of the upcoming war, of the death of someone close to him, and of a visit with Miriam at Clifton when she calls him a traitor. War erupts, and Sawyer and Solomon volunteer to serve the Confederacy and go their separate ways. As the war progresses, Laura Dundee, Stelcie Dundee, Miriam, and other Natchez citizens begin to feel its intrusion on the home front. The two cousins meet by chance during the siege of Vicksburg when Solomon crosses the siege lines between the two armies. Sawyer and Solomon talk with soldiers from Avoyelles Parish (LA), hear wounded soldiers discuss a female redheaded healer at Windsor Plantation, and endure the Union bombardment and share the hardships of the siege. Back in Union territory Solomon finds Zethro in a stockade, and the two men meet with Miss Tree, who relates cryptic words about Egiap. Zethro tells Solomon about what happened at Windsor Plantation as they search for Egiap, who has left an enigmatic missive. Still inside the Confederate lines at Vicksburg, Sawyer encounters some North Louisiana yeoman farmers, meets Xenophanes, and recruits a young soldier to participate in counter-tunneling at the Louisiana Redan. Sawyer is part of the surrender of Vicksburg and becomes a prisoner-of-war.