Daniel Holt is a negro freed from slavery by George Clyde with whom he rides as a fellow bushwhacker. Holt holds a deep loyalty toward Clyde and proves himself to be a proficient gunman during the bushwhackers' various skirmishes with Union forces. Holt, however, has an abiding aim of ultimately locating his mother who remains in slavery in some unknown location. Also, he and Jacob Roedel develop an improbable but ultimately enduring friendship based on their shared sense of courage and decency amid the brutality of war.