Close Before Striking

Hank Cheatham, a professor of American History at a state university, has begun to suspect he is losing his mind. He has frequent blackouts, and often regains consciousness at the airport, with no idea if he is coming or going. He has inexplicably given his daughters permission to do things that would have been inconceivable only a month earlier. He is convinced that the South won the battle of Gettysburg, with distressing results when he gives the keynote speech at a Civil War reenactment.

He approaches Oliver Redman for advice. A black professor of psychology, Redman has often crossed swords with Hank over his politically incorrect views--specifically, his public assertion that Robert E. Lee and lesser known Confederates were great heroes, not merely defenders of the institution of slavery. Redman seems strangely reluctant to help him out of his dilemma.

On top of all this, his old mentor, now dying in a nursing home, has drawn from him a promise to bury him at Appomattox. This entails trespassing upon Federal property in the dead of night. By the end of the book, under peculiar circumstances and with unforeseen historic consequences, the promise is fulfilled.