Serving under General Sheridan, Rick O'Shay enjoyed the sound of the bugles and the drilling with the horses. It all seems wonderful to the half-starved, ill-cared-for boy from the mean farm. Rick even has a horse and he had always wanted one. It is Ocean Pond, the middle-aged hostler, who, while taking a kindly interest in the boy, points out to him the tragedy of what is going on. General Sheridan, his wonderful horse Rienzi, and the cavalry that Sheridan gathered from scattered units and made into a splendid striking force, gallop through these pages. Big battles, important tactical maneuvers of the Civil War are seen through the eyes of the boy. Here is the heavy futility of the Battle of the Wilderness, the attempt to think faster than Marse Robert, the pathos of destruction of the lovely Shenandoah Valley, and on to that last desperate race with Lee's forces, won by the north, but leaving Rick, and all the other veterans, with a respect and a regard for those they fought.