Bill Ayer, a poor young farmer from the small Mississippi town of Duck Hill, is caught up in the winds of war in 1861. Newly married to his childhood sweetheart, he is cast into the hell that became known as Shiloh in April of 1862. Once a Southern Soldier is based on a true story of love, war and survival in the turbulent years of 1861-62 in the western theatre of operations in the Civil War. More than a war story, it portrays how the common soldier felt and suffered in these trying times. It also shows what it was really like on the home front as those left behind lived in fear and hardship. Most of all, it is a love story of Bill and his wife Linda-an unlikely pair and how they cope with separation and loneliness while apart.