Blue and Gray Weekly, No. 22

# Blue and Gray Weekly

This issue features the serialized story "Before Richmond" by Lieut. Harry Lee, set during the American Civil War. The narrative centers on the Battle of Malvern Hill (July 1862) and Captain Will Prentiss, leader of the Virginia Grays, an independent volunteer cavalry company serving the Confederacy. General Lee assigns Prentiss a critical mission: to locate General Stuart and relay orders for him to destroy bridges and supply lines north of Richmond to block General Pope's advancing Army of Virginia. While riding behind Union lines to find Stuart, Prentiss and his lieutenant Fred Randolph witness a disturbing scene from a hilltop—a young woman being abducted by a Confederate officer and Union deserters, while a young man is shot down defending her. The Grays pursue the abductors, and Prentiss discovers the wounded youth is still alive, administering whiskey to revive him.