Those Without Sin (1917)

Melanie Landry lives with her father, a government clerk, in the South at the time the civil war breaks out. Bob Wallace, just out of West Point, is in love with Melanie. At a dance Melanie meets Henry Melon, head of the office in which Melanie's father is a clerk. Melon manipulates Landry's accounts in a way that will compromise him and calls on him. He offers to make good this supposed shortage under certain conditions. Melanie leaves while Melon tries to restrain her. She is seen by gossiping women and Chester, Bob's crippled brother. Chester demands to know why Melon attempted to detain. the girl and when denied this information slaps Melon. Melanie tells her father of the insult, and as Melon is preparing to leave in answer to a summons from Washington, he is caught, tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. That night Sumter is fired upon and the young men join their respective companies. The Union army is rapidly approaching Richmond and the citizens are preparing to leave. A Confederate officer gives Melanie dispatches to take through the line and dummy dispatches to Chester. At a roadside tavern they are captured by Federal soldiers under command of Melon, who orders Chester shot as a spy, but he escapes. The Union officer agrees to let everyone go if Melanie will stay with him. Melanie, to save her neighbors, consents, but when Melon attempts to approach her, blinds his eyes with pepper. Chester, in the meantime, has reached safety and Bob has been warned of the presence of the Federal troops. Melon recovers his eyesight and is about to attack Melanie when Bob shoots him. The Union soldiers are put to rout and the lovers are saved.