In this lively anthology, George William Koon surveys one of America's most fascinating historical events through one of its most noteworthy literary forms - the short story. The resulting tour de force of Civil War fiction crosses cultural, racial, gender, and battle lines in a sampling that proves just how irresistible the Civil War has been - and continues to be - for America's fiction writers.

Ambuscade / William Faulkner -- The War years / Ernest Gaines -- The Private history of a campaign that failed / Mark Twain -- The Reign of the brute / Ellen Glasgow -- A Woman / Mary Johnston -- War / Jack London -- Killed at Resaca / Ambrose Bierce -- The Forest of the South / Caroline Gordon -- Homemade Yankees / Robert Morgan -- Dragged fighting from his tomb / Barry Hannah -- The Burial of the guns / Thomas Nelson Page -- The Return of a private / Hamlin Garland -- The Veteran / Stephen Crane -- Two renegades / O. Henry -- Ancestors / Fred Chappell -- A Late encounter with the enemy / Flannery O'Connor.