U.S. Deputy Page Murdock is ordered by Federal Judge Harlan A. Blackthorne to Cape Hell, Mexico, to verify a report that former Confederate Captain Oscar Childress is raising an army to take over Mexico City -- and then intends to turn north to rekindle the Civil War. Childress, it seems, has the weapons, wealth, and moral compass to do it. Unable to talk himself out of the mission, Murdock heads south on a steam train named El Espanto -- The Ghost....

"Robert E. Lee seemed destined for greatness. His father was a Revolutionary War hero and at West Point he graduated second in his class! In 1861, when the Southern states seceded from the Union, Lee was offered the opportunity to command the Union forces. However, even though he was against the war, his loyalty to his home state of Virginia wouldn't let him fight for the North."--Amazon.com.

Cullen Bohannon, a former soldier and slaveholder, follows the track of Union soldiers, who killed his wife. This brings him to the middle of one of the biggest projects in US history, the building of the railroad. After the war years in the 1860s, this connected the east with the still wild west.