By the winter of 1863-64, General William Tecumseh Sherman has taken control of the Union Army’s western forces. General Grant ordered the “more radical, more impetuous, and more tempestuous” Sherman to go into Georgia and “destroy the heart of the Confederacy” (293). Both Randall Ware and the former houseboy, Jim, are among the forces ready to strike. Jim is a barber, employed by one of the Union armies and Ware still works with General Grenville Dodge on building the railroad. More slave families are fleeing to the Union lines. Around the time that Sherman seizes Atlanta and orders its inhabitants to leave, Ware comes down with a severe fever. He remains in Atlanta after General Sherman departs in November.

One morning, Grimes appears on the doorstep of the Big House wearing a gray and gold Confederate uniform. He announces that he has enlisted and is heading to Macon to defend the city from Union forces. Missy Salina asks about his wife, Jane, and their children. Grimes says that they are heading into the hills to stay with Jane’s family. Salina offers that they could have stayed on the plantation, but Grimes insists that Jane wanted to return home.