Confederates Harrison Bolding, Hogg and After Stand find each other by chance after getting lost in the confusing evening of battle.  Also lost in the daze of combat are Union soldiers John Sunderlin, Augustus and the gravely wounded Pietro who are swept together in their army’s retreat.

      Both groups wander the gnarled forest in pitch blackness with nothing to guide them but raging fire and death at every turn -- begging to find a friend. 

     The men happen upon each other and after a tense exchange, decide to share a meager campfire for the trading of food and the comfort and safety of what they all think are friends.

       The men wear ragged, dirty uniforms so in the night’s moonlight they do not realize they are enemies. The next morning the sun rises and exposes their dangerous mistake.

                 The morning’s sun also ushers in a new day of battle as all six men finally face the gravest reality of the Civil War-- the wicked and hasty end to life and the innocence of a nation.