1863: The continuing saga of a Yankee schoolteacher in the Union Army: Young Freeman Colby joined the 39th Massachusetts Regiment in search of "better returns," but now he just wants to survive the war and return home to his friends & family in New England! Marching deeper into the war-torn heart of Virginia, he crosses paths with countless fellow survivors -- widows, poets, volunteer nurses, refugee children, ragged soldiers, brave mothers striving to deliver their families from slavery... This wide-ranging graphic novel weaves together their stories with Colby's actual letters home, laying bare the day-to-day human struggles that shaped one of the most consequential years in American history.