Death is a Sharpshooter is a classic western and military historical fictionalized account of sharpshooter warfare in the last year of the American Civil War—1864-1865. As the Civil War progresses, the McKay family tries to stay neutral but the fighting finally comes to them in a savage way. In a search for bushwhackers—based only on suspicion—a Union cavalry patrol murders the McKay family. The two oldest sons, two young black men—sons of plantation workers, and a young Shawnee man form the McKay Rangers and seek revenge. During the last year of the brutal war, they protect the citizens of western North Carolina by fending off outlaws, raiders, the Union Army, and a mountain man sent to hunt them down.