The River Ends Here

Freedom and opportunity have always been dear to the hearts of Americans. So it was for Caleb McCabe, son of a famous Virginia military family. Although he abhorred slavery, he was disarmed when the radical abolitionist John Brown attacked the federal armory at Harper's Ferry. Having witnessed Brown's hanging, Caleb and others concluded that more abolitionists would exert their demands over the Southern states. On April 15, when President Lincoln ordered Virginia to supply troops to take up arms against the South Carolina secessionists who fired on Fort Sumter, he and other Virginians found it a hard pill to swallow. On April 17, the Virginia Convention voted to secede. Accepting a commission with the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, Lieutenant McCabe would change everything. His marriage, his attitudes toward war, and his mental state would be tested more than he could ever have imagined and more than most men could ever be expected to withstand.