From crawling lice and deadly diseases to bloody battles and crammed prison camps, life was truly terrible for Union and Confederate soldiers. Get ready to explore the nasty side of life during the U.S. Civil War.

"Describes the disgusting details about daily life in several historical eras, including housing, food, and sanitation"--

From crawling lice and deadly diseases to bloody battles and crammed prison camps, life was truly terrible for Union and Confederate soldiers. Get ready to explore the nasty side of life during the U.S. Civil War.

"The single best kickoff to the American Civil War...I can't imagine a better guide for any of us, whether student or scholar." -Robert Hicks author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Widow of the South "A detailed and enjoyable set of facts and stories that will engage every reader from the newest initiate to the Civil War saga to the most experienced historian. This book is a must have for any Civil War reading collection." - James Lewis, Park Ranger at Stones River National Battlefield Do You Think You Know the Civil War? The History Buff's Guide to the Civil War clears the powder smoke surrounding the war that changed America forever. What were the best, the worst, the largest, and the most lethal aspects of the conflict? With over thirty annotated top ten lists and unexpected new findings, author Thomas R. Flagel will have you debating the most intriguing questions of the Civil War in no time. From the top ten causes of the war to the top ten bloodiest battles, this invaluable guide to the great war between the states will delight and inform you about one of the most crucial periods in American history.

Describes the United States during the Civil War.

Explores the complexities of the Civil War era, detailing the political, economic, military, and human events of this tragic American conflict. Personal and candid excerpts from diaries, newspapers, and songs illustrate the human meanings of the war. Detailed examination of the chain of events in the contexts of the years leading up to the Civil War and follows the war's aftermath. Reports on the home front where the impact of the Civil War was felt most. In this engaging account of the Civil War, the war that Abraham Lincoln called in his Second Inaugural Address, "this terrible war," the authors take the readers beyond the flags and bugles to explore this event for what it was rather than for what many wish it had been. Ultimately set off by the Slavery Debate and the South's secession from the Union, the Civil War was a spiteful military campaign of countryman vs. countryman, and resulted in enormous casualties and dire consequences for the Northern and Southern Armies. The authors thoroughly explore the political, economic, and social chain of events that led up to the war; the chaos and destruction which resulted from political inexperience with waging a war of this magnitude; and the ultimate failure of Reconstruction effort to produce racial justice. With maps to guide the reader through the major battles, and period photographs which show both the military and the human side of the conflict,This Terrible Warprovides the reader with a unique view of a complex American tragedy in the context of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.Michael Fellmanis Professor of History and Director of the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. Among his earlier books areInside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War; Citizen Sherman: A Biography of William T. Sherman;andThe Making of Robert E. Lee.Daniel E. Sutherlandis a professor of history at the University of Arkansas. He is the author or editor of eleven other books about Nineteenth-Century United States history, includingSeasons of War: The Ordeal of a Confederate Community,andFredericksburg and Chancellorsville: The Dare Mark Campaign.

In Disunion, Edward L. Widmer, George Kalogerakis, and Clay Risen bring together the best essays of the celebrated New York Times blog to offer a unique and unforgettable history of The Civil War, from Fort Sumter to Appomattox. Celebrated upon publication for their startling originality,their uncanny ability to bring immediacy and to inspire fresh thought, the pieces were an integral part of the sesquicentennial celebrations, and indeed came to define them. Susan Schulten's "Visualizing History"offers but one example. In 1860, the United States government took its final count ofthe country's slave population. When the Coast Survey produced maps from the data, Americans could at last visualize slavery's prevalence; degrees of shading indicated the number of slaves in a given county. Beaufort County was one of the darkest on the map-in this blackened zone of South Carolina,slaves comprised 82.8 percent of the populace. Lincoln became obsessed with the map and used it to trace his troops' movement-Francis Bicknell Carpenter even painted it in the corner of "President Lincoln Reading the Emancipation Proclamation to His Cabinet.Schulten's pieces and scores of others explore the Civil War by means of key contemporary sources. Moving both chronologically and thematically across all four years, the volume is a comprehensive and illuminating text for scholars and general readers alike. Major academic and popular voices cometogether in each chapter to discuss secession, slavery, battles, and domestic and global politics. The selections feature previously unheard voices-women, freed African Americans, and Native Americans-but also Lincoln, Grant, and Lee. In one volume, Disunion explores America's bloodiest conflictand brings home its legacies.