This small book provides brief facts of the war that altered the course of U.S. History.

Includes index.

Part one : The coming of the war : It's not just about slavery -- Manifest your destiny -- Insist, resist -- Voyage to hell -- The confessions of Nat Turner -- The flack over the Fugitive Slave Act -- Calhoun's doctrine of nullification -- William Lloyd Garrison, the Liberator -- John Brown's soul marches on -- Frederick Douglass follows the North Star -- The Dred Scott ruling -- The many voices of abolition -- Bleeding Kansas -- Succession surprises the North -- Making of the Mason-Dixon Line -- The shrinking Union -- Elephant stampede -- The underdog States -- Teetering on the line -- Call to arms -- Cabinet players -- Europe chooses sides -- The Lincoln-Douglas debates -- Stephen Douglas, the short giant -- Jefferson Davis, leader by default -- Lincoln's first VP, Hannibal Hamlin -- Davis's VP, Alexander Hamilton Stephens -- Tough times for Mary Todd -- Belle of the Confederacy, Varina Howell Davis -- Gods and generals -- The fighting General Grant -- (Un)lucky Lee -- A company of commanders. Part two : The engagements of wartime : A war of amateurs -- The changing face of warfare -- The funding of the war -- Fort Sumter falls -- Bull Run, part 1 -- Shiloh, bloody Shiloh -- Antietam, the single bloodiest day -- Lee's greatest victory : Chancellorsville -- Blood bath at Gettysburg -- The Rock of Chickamauga -- Chattanooga, one more nail in the coffin -- Lee and Grant meet in the Wilderness -- Countercharge at Spotsylvania -- Atlanta burns -- The battle of Nashville closes the Western Front -- Cat and mouse in Petersburg -- Warfare on the water -- Farragut sails into New Orleans -- Naval showdown in Memphis -- The battle of Mobile Bay, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" -- The Monitor vs. the Merrimack. Part three : The weapons of war : The things they carried -- Muskets and rifles -- Handguns -- Artillery fire -- The ironclads -- Non-uniform uniforms -- Soldier's cloth -- Flags of the North and South -- Music on the battlefield. Part four : Camp life -- Chaos on the battlefield -- A legendary loss -- Prisoner exchange rate -- Andersonville horror -- Battlefield medicine under par -- Angels on the battlefield : Clara Barton and Dorothea Dix -- War doctors : little training, tough job -- African American participation as Soldiers -- The famous Massachusetts 54th Regiment -- Ethnic makeup of the Civil War -- Mathew Brady, the father of contemporary photojournalism -- Espionage during the war -- Women and children in the line of fire. Part five : The homefront : Effects, for every American -- America on the eve of destruction -- Changing roles, family life -- Ideological rift divides families -- City life, far from the battlefield -- Surviving on the farm -- Lifestyle of the landed gentry, plantation life -- Slavery in the Bible?. Part six : The end of the conflict, Reconstruction, and the war's legacy : An end in sight -- The final battles -- The Hampton Roads conference calls for peace -- The surrender of Robert E. Lee -- Lee's final order -- The lingering war -- Arlington National Cemetery, a final resting place -- The plot against Lincoln -- The capture of Jefferson Davis -- The 13th, abolishing, amendment -- Reconstructing the South -- The freedman's bureau helps former slaves adapt -- Black codes slow true sovereignty -- Johnson takes over : rejoining the Union.