While researching the final days of the Civil War in Appomattox, Virginia, Shepherd stumbles upon a grave at the gate of a grand home and learns that it contains the body of a Union soldier, which is nevertheless tended with utmost respect. Shepherd is curious about the soldier's date of death on - April 10, 1865, the day after Lee's surrender - and the unusual epitaph, "His life in vain" carved on it's headstone, and wonders how the soldier met his end.
—David Bassler