This, the second volume of Foote's acclaimed history, is dominated by the near continual confrontation of great armies. The Army of the Potomac, under Burnside, once again attempts to take Richmond, resulting in the bloodbath at Fredericksburg. Then, under Joe Hooker, they try again, only to be repulsed at Chancellorsville when Stonewall Jackson turns his flank--a victory for the South, but a bitter one, and one paid for by the death of Lee's foremost lieutenant. In the west, Grant's seven relentless efforts against Vicksburg show Lincoln that he has at last found his killer-general, the man who can 'face the arithmetic.' With Vicksburg finally under siege, Lee again invades the North. The three-day conflict at Gettysburg receives book-length attention in a masterly treatment of a key battle, not as legend has it, but as it really was.
The word 'narrative' is the key to this extraordinary book's incandescence and its truth. The story is told entirely from the point of view of the people involved in it. One learns not only what was happening on all fronts but also how the author discovered it during his years of exhaustive research. It is a narrative history of the American Civil War, which covers not only the battles and the troop movements but also the social background that brought on the war and led, in the end, to the South's defeat.
