A code, a secret message passed down through the Scarburg family resurfaces once again during the Civil War. What does it mean? All Robert Steven Scarburg knows is the secret began with his grandfather John 'Pappy' Scarburg during the Revolutionary War. What clandestine message has the early Scarburg patriarch send to him. Is it a code foretelling of hidden treasure or a message suggesting a dire warning?
Now his two oldest sons, Luke and Matthew have determined they must enlist and fight for the South. Robert will not let his sons fight alone, at age forty-nine he enlists. Being critically wounded at Devil's Den during the Battle of Gettysburg he passes the code "2K168" on to his sons, hoping they will survive to discover it meaning.