On a cold morning, at daybreak, the 304th New York Regiment is waiting to engage with the Confederate army by a river. Among the soldiers is eighteen-year-old volunteer Henry Fleming, who has enlisted against his mother's wishes and is now shaken by a sense of fear and regret at the prospect of battle. But when the confrontation begins and, fearing for his life, he escapes from the field, other feelings -- above all guilt and shame for deserting and for having retreated witho