13 h 59 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 13 h 59 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does loyalty mean when the city you call home stands on the edge of collapse?
In Before the Dawn, Joseph A. Altsheler takes you inside Richmond, Virginia, in the last days of the Confederate capital. The war is nearly lost. Against this city under siege, love and loyalty become urgent personal questions, not distant words.
Altsheler brings adventure and romance into a world shaped by real campaigns, commanders, and turning points. His invented characters move through a national crisis that tests private feeling and personal duty. With an eye toward reconciliation, he approaches a divided nation without reducing its people to one side of the conflict.
What you’ll discover
- A capital under siege Enter Richmond as the Confederate capital faces the final days of a nearly lost war.
- Love against divided loyalties Explore the strain between private feeling and duty when civil war makes allegiance anything but simple.
- Adventure rooted in history Follow invented lives through a story built around real campaigns, commanders, and turning points.
- A nation seen with care Discover a view of the conflict shaped by Altsheler's wish for reconciliation between its divided sides.
- Private lives, public disaster Feel how the collapse of a city and a cause presses upon personal hopes and loyalties.
Who will love it
Readers who love Civil War history told through people, who enjoy a spy mystery with a chase through the snow, and who like a love story set in the last winter of Richmond.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Prescott returns to a divided city
- Sefton's influence reaches into private lives
- Suspicion gives way to personal loyalty
- Secret kindness leaves dangerous traces
- Prescott chooses action over obedience
- War brings their paths together again
- Affection crosses the lines of duty
- Power cannot secure what Sefton wants
- Small objects carry the larger conflict
Who’s who
- Robert PrescottA young captain from the Deep South on General Lee's staff, mild but stubborn, who wants to serve his cause and cannot stop thinking about a Northern woman.
- Lucia CatherwoodA tall, proud young woman from the Northern side, hidden in Richmond, who wants her freedom and the right to choose her own heart.
- James SeftonA smooth, powerful Secretary who rose from poverty and wants influence, safety and the woman he loves, and is willing to use secrets to get them.
- Helen HarleyA beautiful Richmond girl who takes a government job to support her father and slowly grows from a society belle into a self-reliant woman.
- Thomas TalbotPrescott's cheerful lieutenant friend, forever joking and bargaining, who wants to stay in the fight and keep up everyone's spirits.
- General WoodAn illiterate mountaineer and great cavalry leader who fears his own rough manners and quietly hopes to win Helen's love.
- Mrs. MarkhamThe bright, flirtatious wife of an older general, who loves admiration and enjoys winning hearts.
- Charlotte GraysonA timid Richmond seamstress with Northern sympathies who shelters her cousin Lucia and shows surprising courage.
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Before the Dawn
by Joseph A. Altsheler · 1903
A wounded captain in Richmond follows a woman in a brown cloak and risks his career to hide a Northern spy.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
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In short
What would you do if a tall woman in a brown cloak slipped past the sentries of a besieged capital and the whole government wanted her found? Captain Robert Prescott, a staff officer returning home, answers that question in a way that could ruin him.
Before the Dawn at a glance
- Reading time
- About 8 h6 h 20 min fast, 9 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 113,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1903by Joseph A. Altsheler
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A wounded captain comes home to Richmond
The story opens on a raw winter morning. A tall young captain rides the train to Richmond, his left arm stiff and his uniform full of holes. Robert Prescott has spent three years with the Army of Northern Virginia, and he is happy to be going home.
He notices a lone woman in the corner, wrapped in a long brown cloak that hides her face. When he picks up a package she drops, she gives him one curt word of thanks and turns back to the window. He forgets her. She does not forget him.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1903
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 9 h 5 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Altsheler, Joseph A. Before the Dawn. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/before-the-dawn.
Altsheler, J. A. (2026). Before the dawn. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/before-the-dawn (Original work published 1903)
Altsheler, Joseph A. Before the Dawn. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/before-the-dawn.
@book{altsheler2026before,
author = {Altsheler, Joseph A.},
title = {Before the Dawn},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/before-the-dawn},
note = {First published 1903}
}
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What is Before the Dawn about?
It follows Captain Robert Prescott in Richmond and on campaign through the Confederacy's decline and the end of the Civil War. He meets a Northern woman accused of stealing government papers, helps her, and finds himself caught between love, duty and a powerful rival.
Who is Mr. Sefton in Before the Dawn?
Sefton is a quiet, clever government Secretary with great influence in Richmond. He rose from poverty by craft and patience, and he uses what he knows about others to pursue his own ambitions and the woman he loves.
Is Before the Dawn a true story?
It is a novel by Joseph A. Altsheler, with invented main characters and real figures such as Lee, Davis, Grant and John Morgan. The battles, the winter siege and the fall of Richmond come from actual history.
The author
Joseph A. Altsheler
1862–1919 · American historical novelist
Joseph Alexander Altsheler (1862–1919) was an American novelist and journalist. He was born in Kentucky and later lived in Louisville and New York City, where he died. He wrote historical fiction, including novels for young readers, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His books include The Border Watch.
More by Joseph A. Altsheler
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