The full story of the war is told by those who experienced it in this collection of documents from family records, private correspondence, public archives and other sources, arranged chronologically to provide a start-to-finish narrative of the war and its aftermath.

Rev. ed. of: The Blue and the Gray. 1950.

Darkening clouds -- Conflict precipitated -- Gathering of the hosts -- Bull Run and the Peninsular Campaign -- Stonewall Jackson and the Valley Campaign -- Second Bull Run and Antietam -- Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville -- How the soldiers lived: Eastern front -- Incidents of army Life: Eastern front -- Fort Donelson to Stones River -- Struggle for Missouri and the West -- How the soldiers lived: Western front -- Incidents of army Life: Western Front -- Problem of discipline -- Great Britain and the American Civil War -- Songs the soldiers sang -- Poems of the Civil War -- Gettysburg -- Vicksburg and Port Hudson -- Prisons, North and South -- Behind the lines: North -- Behind the Lines: South -- Hospitals, surgeons, and nurses -- African-American experience -- War for emancipation -- Coast and inland Waters -- Blockade and the cruisers -- Chickamauga and Chattanooga -- Atlanta and the march to the sea -- Wilderness -- Siege of Petersburg -- Valley in 1864 -- Lee and Lincoln -- Sunset of the confederacy.