Martin Hufman was a young fellow growing up in Brooklyn, New York, in those years immediately proceeding the Civil War. He and his childhood friends innocently sign up to fight as soldiers in the Union Army when war begins in 1861. But they are faced with the death and destruction brought on by battles, nothing for which they were prepared. After endless fighting, Martin begins to show signs of battle shock when his hands shake endlessly and nightmares fill his sleeping hours.