Lincoln is elected President, and George pays a surprise visit to Orry to apologize for what his fanatical sister said on their last visit and they resolve their differences, with Orry finally consenting to Brett marrying Billy. Ashton is still out for revenge and arranges for Billy to be attacked on the street, though it's not successful. She then turns to her lover Forbes LaMotte, Justin's nephew, to get the deed done, and Billy and Brett's wedding seems to be just the right day. Madeline overhears the plot and rushes to tell Orry, who tells her she will stay at Mont Royal and never return to Justin. Bent plots to run any blockade imposed on Southern ports. Orry travels to Pennsylvania to finish repaying George his investment in the cotton mill and realizes the full extent of the hatred that now exists. Confederate forces attack Fort Sumter and war is declared, forcing George and Orry say farewell, not knowing what the future may hold for their families or their friendship.

The fighting ends with a Northern victory. Orry and George fight against each other (although not directly) in the last major battle at Petersburg; Orry is knocked out and captured...

Charles and Orry set out to rescue George Hazard, who is being held at Libby Prison in Richmond. They make sure he gets back to Union lines and he makes it home for Christmas. As he recovers, however, he learns that a warrant has been issued for his arrest for selling faulty cannons to the Army. He goes after Morgan, the black marketeer, and his brother Stanley does the right thing. At Mont Royal, Brett has an unfortunate encounter with Salem Jones. Madeline has been continuing her good works in Charleston, helping those living in the shanty town and gets Rafe Baudeen's help when a group of young boys are taken to dig rifle pits for the army. Bent continues to dream of taking control of the Confederacy and gets Ashton to sleep with a contributor. Bent has a large stash of ammo and powder but Orry is soon onto him. An exhausted Charles visits Augusta Barclay.

Orry and Charles, now officers in the Confederate Army, leave the Main family plantation for the war in Virginia. Orry, despite having been against secession, accepts a commission to brigadier general and begins to serve as military aide to Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Richmond. Meanwhile, George and Billy are in Washington, D.C., where they are officers in the U.S. Army. Billy joins the U.S. Sharpshooters regiment, while George also accepts a commission, though only to colonel, and becomes a military aide to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

When the Hazards visit Mont Royal, Billy loses interest in Ashton when he sees her with another man, turning his interests to Brett. Virgilia meets James Hontoon's coachman Grady and forms an instant attraction to him. After spending the night together, she helps him run away to the North, which leads to a confrontation with Huntoon. Orry feels he has little choice but to ask the Hazards to leave. Virgilia and Grady are soon living together as husband and wife but that makes even some of the most ardent supporters of abolition uncomfortable. Billy and Charles graduate from West Point with Billy assigned to go to Washington, D.C. and Charles sent to Texas under the command of Robert E. Lee. Billy proposes to Brett, but Orry will not allow him to court her. Ashton continues to scheme her way through society and turns to Madeline when she gets into trouble. Meanwhile, Madeline's father is on his deathbed and shocks her by revealing a hidden family secret.

When George Hazard learns that it's his sister-in-law who owns the majority shares in the mining operation at Mont Royal, he turns to his brother Stanley, who again does the right thing. George returns to Mont Royal with Madeline and as the new owner of the mine, makes his first act shuttering the company store. He and Madeline soon fall in love. When George learns that Bent has kidnapped Charlie's young son, he sets off to find him. He and Charlie track Bent down for a final confrontation. Back in South Carolina, George and Madeline prepare for an attack from the Klan. Ashton returns to find what remains of her beloved Mont Royal.

With Madeline's school burned to the ground by the Klan, they decide to rebuild. Cooper Main has discovered phosphates on Mont Royal land and with Isabelle Hazard as an investor, begins a mining operation. The conditions of work are poor, however, and the former slaves who work there are forced into another kind of servitude when they are forced to use the company store to buy their supplies, kept in perpetual debt. In Pennsylvania, George Hazard is bereft over the loss of Constance and has become obsessed with finding Bent and exacting his revenge. He has Pinkerton's men tracking him, but they always seem to be one step behind. It takes a visit from Madeline to save him from himself. Ashton has given up prostitution and is now focusing on her new husband's piano business, obsessed with raising enough money to buy Mont Royal. Charlie Main meanwhile refuses to settle down with Willa and continues to roam the West, now as an army scout searching for Scar, who killed his friends.

With the war having come to an end, Orry and Madeline are living in Richmond until Mont Royal can be rebuilt, where Bent and Ashton pay them a visit. Ashton thinks it's to get money out of Orry, but Bent has revenge in mind. Ashton pushes Bent into the river and when he awakens, he can't remember who he is. Madeline relocates to South Carolina, intent on rebuilding their former home. With the help of Prudence, she also wants to build a school. George Hazard visits Madeline with a business proposition. After his visit, Madeline gets a night time visit by the Ku Klux Klan. Just as he arrives home in Lehigh Station, Pennsylvania George finds that Bent has already been there.

1842: Orry Main leaves the cotton plantation near Charleston that he's heir to on his way to West Point for two years of officer's training. On the way, he meets and falls in love with Madeline Fabray, who agrees to write to him. However, her father needs her to wed Orry's rude neighbor, rich plantation owner Justin LaMotte. Orry's letters to Madeline become intercepted by her father so she becomes susceptible to Justin's generous courting. At West Point, Orry meets fellow cadet George Hazard, son of a Pennsylvania manufacturer. The hazing lives up to its reputation, not least due to drill master Elkanah Bent, who takes particular pleasure in humbling the cadets at sword-practice, but is humiliatingly defeated by Orry. George introduces Orry to his Pennsylvania family and their iron factory. After graduating and returning home, Orry stops an overseer from happily whipping a slave, but his father, Tillet, refuses to sack the sadist.

The ebb and flow of war has begun with victories and defeats on both sides. Brett and Semiramis make it safely back to Mont Royal, after a dangerous encounter with Northern troops. When Orry hears that Justin has abducted Madeline from Mont Royal, he rescues her and they are soon married. Virgilia meets Dorothy Dix who accepts her as a nurse on the basis of Congressman Sam Greene's recommendation. Orry needs to stop the blockade runners and is almost captured by a Northern patrol. By the purest luck, he meets George on the trail. Bent has ambitions of megalomaniacal proportions and has every intention of gaining power in the South, fully expecting his new lover, Ashton, to be at his side. His scorned former paramour puts him out of business for a while. Charles is wounded and makes his way to Augusta Barclay's farm where he recuperates. At Lehigh Station, Stanley Hazard, egged on by his ever ambitious wife and against his better judgment, gets involved in shady deals.