"The desperate struggle for mastery of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley ... pitted a remarkable cast of heroes in blue and gray against each other: ... Phillip Sheridan, a Union general with an uncanny gift for inspiring soldiers, and Jubal Early, his Confederate counterpart; ... the dashing Yankee boy-general, George Armstrong Custer, and the brilliant, courageous John Brown Gordon, a charismatic Georgian who lived one of the era's greatest love stories....