The Shatto's were all fighting men. Seasoned and scarred by years of Apache warfare and carving a ranch from a western wilderness, Chip returned to his more-settled ancestral homelands in Perry County, Pennsylvania.
However, it was 1864 and the nation's great Civil War had approached its climax. Chip believed it his duty to serve his country—as local men of honor and heart had been serving for four long and wearying years.
Shatto's special fighting talents were put to important use, but in supporting the North, Chip engaged a powerful enemy who, even with the war's end, could not put behind his hatred of the Union scout. Shatto had, with a single blow, savaged his once handsome features, denied him a fortune in gold, and decimated his most important scheming.
Jonathan Starling's deadly and secret war against Chip Shatto and all that he held dear continued.