It's
1860; West Tennessee farm boy Sam Carter has his heart set on lighting
out for Texas when he turns eighteen to seek his fortune in the Lone
Star state. His plans to go alone suddenly change with Sara Beth
Sullivan, a local girl who has spent much of her life in Nashville,
convinces him that they should go together. The young couple are making
plans and saving money when the new president, Abraham Lincoln, puts
out a call for troops to invade the South and put down the rebellion of
the Southern states. The Tennessee legislature votes to secede and the
vote is ratified by the state, although Sam and Sara's own county votes
to stay with the Union. Sam is torn. Finally, an acquaintance in
Memphis, a businessman named Nate Forrest, convinces him to join a
local Tennessee cavarly unit.
While they are in training,
Forrest recieves authorization from the Tennessee governor to raise his
own regiment and asks Sam Carter to go with him as his executive
officer. Early the following year, Sam escapes from Fort Donelson and
manages to cross the Tennessee River on his beloved black stallion,
Spartacus, and is nursed back to life by an attractive young widow on
her farm near the river. The woman wants him to stay with her but his
loyalty is to the South, and to Sara Beth. Sam rejoins Forrest at Iuka,
Mississippi just before the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing, also known as
Shiloh to the Union forces. After Pittsburgh Landing, Forrest sends Sam
back into West Tennessee on a scouting mission. A few months later he
and his men return to Mississippi to discover that Forrest has been
sent to Middle Tennessee, but they're still working for him. He
recieves and order to return to West Tennessee with the mission of
raising troops and harrassing the Federal troops who occupy the region.
He and his men, who are reinforced with new men who had been with
Forrest but had remained in Mississippi, ride back into West Tennessee
with Col. Frank Armstrong, who is conducting a raid as far as Jackson.
Unknown
to Sam, Sara Beth has gone to Nashville with her mother and is also
working for Forrest. Just before Sam and his company return to West
Tennessee, Sara recieves word through an unlikely source that Forrest
wants her to go back to West Tennessee. A few weeks later she has an
unexpected encounter with her beloved Sam, who takes her to his secret
camp at a field of ancient Indian mounds south of Jackson. Fearful that
his camp may be discovered, Sam decides to move his camp to a new
location in the remote Forked Deer River bottom north of Jackson. Sara
advises him that there is a former Confederate training camp at Terry's
Bridge, in a large field in the Obion River bottom below her family's
farm. Sam decides to set up his training camp at Terry's Bridge, which
puts him practically in Sara's back yard!
The Scout is an exciting story about what the Civil War in West Tennessee.