Hugo Blackledge was a sergeant in the Confederate States Army during the Second Great War. Jorge Rodriguez and Gabriel Medwick were assigned to his squad. Without being commissioned, Blackledge eventually ascended to acting company commander. A hard-driving man and a difficult taskmaster, Blackledge was brave and competent. Though generally hated by his men, he was concerned with their welfare, and once turned a gun on General George Patton when Patton threatened to shoot one of his men for cowardice. The soldier was in fact suffering from shell shock.