Contributors to this collection, public historians with experience at Civil War battle sites, examine key shifts in the Civil War and the context surrounding them to show that many chains of events caused the course of the war to change: the Federal defeats at First Bull Run and Ball's Bluff, the wounding of Joseph Johnston at Seven Pines and the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville, the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Federal victory at Vicksburg, Grant's decision to move on to Richmond rather than retreat from the Wilderness, the naming of John B. Hood as commander of the Army of Tennessee, and the 1864 presidential election. In their conclusion, the editors suggest that the assassination of Abraham Lincoln might have been the war's final turning point.

Introduction / Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White -- Bull Run : confidence renewed : surviving Bull Run and the birth of the Army of the Potomac / Robert Orrison -- Ball's Bluff : unintended consequences: Ball's Bluff and the rise of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War / James A. Morgan -- Shiloh: defeated victory : Albert Sydney Johnston's death at Shiloh / Gregory A. Mertz -- The Emancipation Proclamation : the heaviest blow yet given the Confederacy : the Emancipation Proclamation changes the Civil War / Kevin Pawlak -- Chancellorsville : the cresting tide : Robert E. Lee and the road to Chancellorsville / Kristopher D. White -- The fall of Vicksburg: Vicksburg: the victory that unleashed Ulysses S. Grant / Daniel T. Davis -- No turning back : Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do : Ulysses S. Grant in the Wilderness / Ryan Longfellow -- Hood takes command of the Army of Tennessee : a turning point : replacing Joseph E. Johnston with John B. Hood / Stephen Davis -- The election of 1864 : the point of no return : turning points within the 1864 presidential election and the doom of the Confederacy / Rea Andrew Redd -- Conclusion / Chris Mackowski.