Seward's Folly

In the aching aftermath of the Civil War, former Confederate officer Jeff Sharp returns to a hometown that has shifted beneath his feet. He sits alone at the ruins of his family’s mansion, nursing memories of battles and the quiet constancy of his faithful servant, Pompey, now a free man. When a familiar figure at the post office hands him a single envelope, the weight of the past presses down: it bears the seal of William H. Seward, the Union’s Secretary of State and a man Jeff once considered a friend of his mother.

The letter forces Jeff to confront a tangled web of loyalty, pride, and lingering resentment toward the North. As he wrestles with the words inside, the story paints a vivid portrait of a South trying to rebuild while its veterans grapple with the ghosts of honor and loss. Listeners are drawn into a world where personal histories collide with the larger sweep of a nation redefining itself.