Resolution: Part Three of the Sphinx of the Confederacy

After the debacle in Gettysburg, Jefferson Davis must deal with, not only the Union Army' s new commander, Ulysses S. Grant, but also his own political enemies at home, whose ranks have been growing in proportion to the South' s diminishing hopes. His wife, Varina, in the meantime, has been increasingly involved politically and socially with his Minister of State, Judah Benjamin. Their relationship has now developed to the point where they dare to admit to one another that they are indeed in love. Silas, the slave who ran away from Davis' plantation, continues his work in Richmond as a spy. However, his cover is now blown, and he has come under the scrutiny of the Provost Marshal, General John H. Winder. The young spy' s sudden disappearance will thrust Rachel, who had been supplying him with information from inside the Confederate White House, into the arms of General James Chestnut' s body servant and put her life in extreme danger. In this third and final volume, the force of events doesn' t bring the characters together as it had done in the earlier volumes. The action instead drives them apart. However, their individual fates will be determined by the same catastrophic event -- the violent and bloody end of the conflict which has ripped their country asunder.