North and South
John Jakes
 Orry Main from South Carolina and George Hazard from Pennsylvania meet on their way to the United States Military Academy at West Point. They soon become close friends, frequently confronting their regional differences within the frame of their friendship. During their time at the academy, Orry and George are tormented by a sadistic Ohio cadet named Elkanah Bent, but in time are able to effect Bent's expulsion from West Point. The companions graduate and become officers in the United States Army during the Mexican-American War. On the way to Mexico, George courts a young Irish woman in Texas named Constance. George and Orry end up in the Battle of Vera Cruz, where Orry's arm is badly wounded and eventually amputated. He is sent home, but George stays. George is later released from the Army due to his father's death, and he and Constance return to George's home in Pennsylvania and marry. George and Orry eventually meet up again and resume their friendship as tensions strengthen between the North and South. Soon, Orry's younger sister Brett falls in love with George's younger brother Billy. Later, Billy is a classmate of Orry's cousin Charles at West Point. In 1858, as Orry is planning a trip to Pennsylvania, Brett begs him to take her with him so they can continue to St. Louis, where Billy is stationed with the Army Corps of Engineers. On the train back to South Carolina, the train is stopped by raiders under the command of the radical abolitionist John Brown in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, then part of the state of Virginia. Brett and Orry are sent on their way to South Carolina unharmed. Two years after the Mains and Hazards rendezvous in Pennsylvania, Billy joins the U.S. Army as the American Civil War draws near. Stationed only a few miles away from the Main plantation at Major Robert Anderson's garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, Billy is given leave and marries Brett the next day. A few nights later, Confederate forces under the command of Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Fort Sumter, setting off the Civil War. Orry and George say their final good-bye before the war, hoping for the best for each other.