The "Old Doctor", John Churchill Gordon, delightfully tells stories of growing up on a plantation in Virginia before the Civil War. His father was a farmer, a member of the Virginia Legislature, and a friend of Thomas Jefferson.

Then came the Civil War. When Virginia seceded, the doctor was appointed assistant surgeon for the 38th Virginia Volunteers. After the Confederacy surrendered, his family suffered through the hardships of Reconstruction. They survived, and came through it with a home of their own in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He and his beloved wife, Mary, had eight sons and two daughters.

Edward Stuart Gordon wrote this book as if his grandfather, the "Old Doctor", was speaking. The author retells family stories of real-life people, places, and events in a way that preserves the richness, heritage, and hardships of the Civil War era from the perspective of a real southern Virginia family.