Hearing about her mother's injury, Brett and her slave Semiramis make the dangerous trip from Washington, D. C. to the Main plantation in South Carolina. Orry leaves Richmond and returns to South Carolina as well - he finds Madeline at Justin's plantation and kills Justin in a fight. Orry and Madeline finally get married. Orry discovers Bent's illegal smuggling enterprise and stops it by capturing Bent's blockade runners, arresting his men, and destroying most of his merchandise. Bent and Ashton vow revenge. In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, George's older brother Stanley takes over the family's steel factories. His greedy wife Isabel talks him into using cheap, low-grade iron to make cannons for the U. S. Army; the cannons often explode and kill Northern soldiers. They forge George's name on the documents, in case the cannons are traced back to Hazard Iron.