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Description: This is the story of what became of the US during the conflict of The Civil War. From the decades before the clash – when the issues that divided the country outlived every attempt at compromise – through the opening gunshot, to the sombre field at Appomattox where men wearily laid down their arms and went home, this book chronicles the actions and passions of a people caught in the grip of history.
Robert Paul Jordan, of National Geographic, visited many of the Civil War arenas – the 200 foot bluffs at Vicksburg, the rolling pastures at Gettysburg. They searched with a metal detector in Mississippi for Minie balls and spent a bright morning visiting Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbour.
The author has a strong personal link with the war. His great-uncle at the age of 17 enlisted in an Ohio regiment. His letters home, full of enthusiasm, pathos, and misspellings, add the human factor to the statistics of warfare and bring to life the trials of the brave men who fought. Woven into the accounts of the battles are portraits of the personalities and leaders of both sides: the mystical Lincoln, brooding in the White House, driven by a vision of one nation; hard-driving Ulysses S. Grant, attacking again and again, grinding down the Confederate forces; Robert E. Lee, brilliant commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, dominating the minds of his opponents.
A team of National Geographic researches combed the Nation’s libraries, museums, private collections, and century-old periodicals to find illustrations for The Civil War. Five paintings, specially done for this volume by artist Richard Schlecht, present decisive battles with the smoke thinned away and every phase of the action clear. Equally clear, from the author’s sensitive retelling, are the agonies that the North and South both endured – the fratricidal bloodletting, the upheaval and despair – before the country could once again become the United States. |
