Joseph Patton, born in Ohio, fought for the Union in the Civil War. Cornelius Gardener, who married Patton's daughter, served forty years in the Army, first on the Great Plains in the Indian Wars, then in Cuba and the Philippines in the Spanish American war. THe son of a Dutch minister, his protest of the Army's brutality toward Filipino insurgents helped trigger a congressional investigation. The book traces these men's careers and families, placing them in historical context and drawing on unpublished diaries and memoirs.