Description: In the American Civil War of the 1860’s the United States, an independent nation for less than eighty years faced it’s most exacting test. In the four years of war almost as many Americans were killed as in all other wars the United States had been involved in. This book tells the history of the war which began with cavalry chases and infantry charges and ended with slaughter by artillery and massed rifles on an epic scale. It was the grim forerunner to the war in northern France almost fifty years later. The economic, social and political implications of the war were great. It settled the indivisibility of the United States once and for all. It was also one of the first wars to be photographed on such a large scale and many of the telling photographs in this book are contemporary. It is a lively and penetrating account of the war whose effects are still felt by the nation today.