The only way to escape the purgatory that was the Florence Stockade was to die. So on February 3, 1865, Zebulon Hogan died and was buried in the prisoners' cemetery. It was young Ebenezer Chase, a runaway slave, who saw the shadowy figure of a hand clawing through the muddy dirt over that grave.Zeb Hogan has a mission that goes far beyond escaping from the Stockade. He has sworn an oath to other prisoners to pursue and kill a traitorous Sergeant who traded blue for gray and is now in Vicksburg. The problem for Zeb is that he knows nothing of the surrounding country and is likely to be intercepted. Ebenezer, despite being a runaway no less vulnerable to capture, does know the country, and perhaps together they can join forces to get where they want to go.