And Trouble Followed

In this work of historical fiction, set in 1868 during the Congressional Reconstruction period, four Union soldiers are finally discharged from the Army. They had been in many Civil War battles together, creating an undeniable bond, and then they jointly decided to extend their enlistments, ending their service in the Third Military District, one of five such districts set up by Congress in the defeated Confederacy.
Uniquely, the four soldiers, Dalton, Harrison, Shadrach, and Emmet, are two white men and two black men. Shadrach and Emmet are former slaves who joined the Union Army after fleeing the plantations and after blacks were allowed by Congress to serve. Dalton lived on the streets after his parents died and before he joined the Army. Harrison was an abolitionist and a preacher’s son who intends to return to the ministry. With their military service ended they struggle with saying goodbye to each other knowing it is unlikely that they will ever meet again but promising to keep in touch. The men then head their separate ways to different parts of the country to try to forget the trauma of the war and create new lives, but in a world still shattered by disunion, trouble followed.