In 1864, a Union draft officer was shot and killed in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. The military response was to send a thousand soldiers into the county. Over 100 suspects were rounded up in an early morning raid and over fourty were confined at Fort Mifflin near Philadelphia. After trial by military tribunal, several were convicted for impeding the war effort and the draft.
Jacob Saddler, a Quaker orphan, is caught up in the melee and imprisoned. He is befriended by an Irish Captain and harassed by a prison guard. Jacob accidently kills the guard and finds reason to question his pacifist views. Meanwhile, his Republican girlfriend is overcome with the sight of so many maimed men returning from the war and adopts a pacifist viewpoint.
Local residents use the Bible to support their views on both sides of the slavery and war issues. Both sides hold rallies repleat with speeches both praising the war effort and freedom for the slaves and condemming the same. In the end, the Democrats hold a massive rally condemning the Lincoln Administration and the Emancipation Proclamation, but praising the saving of the Union.