As the Yankees approached Richmond on April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis fled the capital, setting off an intense and thrilling chase in which Union cavalry hunted the Confederate president. Two weeks later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was convinced that Davis was involved in the crime. Preparing for the largest and most magnificent funeral pageant in American history, soldiers placed Lincoln's corpse aboard a special train to Springfield, Illinois. Along the way, several million mourners watched the funeral train roll by.

The saga that began withManhuntcontinues as James Swanson masterfully weaves together the stories of the two fallen leaders as they make their final journeys through the bloody landscape of a wounded nation.