After Taps

Set in Baltimore during the American Civil War, the three-act play follows a Union colonel and his household as military obligations, local loyalties, and personal affections collide. Action moves from an incident framed as a rear shooting through soldiers' camp life and evening reflection to a concluding homecoming. The drama alternates comic domestic scenes and marching-song pageantry with earnest wartime encounters involving officers, enlisted men, a contraband figure, and family members, emphasizing duty, reunion, and the interplay between public military service and private domestic bonds.