A novel set during the American Civil War. As a sixteen year old in 1863, McElroy enlisted as a private in the Union Army. The following year he was captured by Confederate cavalrymen and was imprisoned for the remainder of the war. The story's name is made glorious by the valor and achievements of the splendid First Division of the Fourteenth Army Corps, the cognizance of which was a crimson acorn, worn on the breasts of its gallant soldiers, and borne upon their battle flags.