Robert E. Lee (Martin Sheen) to send his Confederate troops into what became a suicidal attack across an open field toward entrenched and superior Union forces. The night before the first attack, his aide Longstreet (Tom Berenger) pleads with him to reconsider, but Lee seems seized by an almost mystical faith in his cause and his men. Inspired by him, they march joyfully into battle, many of them to certain death.