Summary

In Part II, “1864,” “The Sharpshooter, Afflicted, May 1864,” after leaving and joining the War, Sharpshooter often thought about Eliza and “their isolated Allegheny ridge in frontier Virginia” (45). He and Eliza had grown up together. However, after her father discovered they were lovers, he branded Sharpshooter’s chest “like he was property” 45). Sharpshooter was Dearbhla’s adopted son and nursemaid. She tended to his wounds after Eliza’s father’s cruelty.

Eliza wrote to Sharpshooter during his first months away. However, after his Cavalry Regiment was pulled “into the Third Brigade” her letters stopped reaching him (46). She was pregnant when Sharpshooter left and he hoped she and the baby were okay. After he served his “three-year enlistment,” Sharpshooter reenlisted, determined not to “go home until the War was won” (47).

Although the sharpshooters “moved with the troops,” they were loners who only went by their nicknames...