A senior military historian presents an unflinching account of the human costs of the Civil War.

Senior military historian Michael C. C. Adams has written an unflinching account of the human costs of the Civil War, clustering the voices of myriad actual participants on the firing line or in the hospital ward to create a virtual historical reenactment. Living Hell presents a stark portrait of the human costs of the Civil War and gives readers an accurate appreciation of its profound and lasting consequences.

Drawing extensively on letters and memoirs of individual soldiers, Adams assembles vivid accounts of the distress Confederate and Union soldiers faced daily: sickness, exhaustion, hunger, devastating injuries, and makeshift hospitals, where saws were often the medical instrument of necessity.

Inverting Robert E. Lee's famous line about war, Adams suggests that too many Americans become fond of war out of ignorance of its terrors. Providing a powerful counterpoint to Civil War glorification, Living Hell echoes William Tecumseh Sherman's comment that war is cruelty and cannot be refined.

This book has made an important contribution to Civil War studies by reminding us graphically of the war's dark side.--New York Review of Books

This essential book gives soldiers their due and presents the realities of war in a way few have dared. Ideal for anyone interested in military history.--Library Journal (starred review)

Provides a vital gut-wrenching counterpoint to the Civil War's glamorization in America's collective memory, a perspective as important to understanding the war as any political history or general's biography.--Shelf Awareness

In Adams' hands, the Civil War's legacy is unmitigated personal horror, societal suffering, and political factionalism . . . Living Hell engagingly opens up the 'dark side' of the Civil War to comparative scrutiny with other modern wars.--Civil War Monitor

This powerful counterpoint to Civil War glorification paints a stark portrait of the true brutality of the conflict . . . Living Hell is a moving, often graphic, exploration of what the war did to men's bodies and minds.--History Book Club

Any who would truly understand the daily trials of the Civil War must have this book!--Midwest Book Review

A compelling and salutary reminder of the frightful miseries of war. All students of the Civil War and military history in general should contemplate the lessons of war's terrors revealed in this powerful and uncompromising book.--Michigan War Studies Review

Michael C. C. Adams, Regents Professor of History Emeritus at Northern Kentucky University, is the author of The Best War Ever: America and World War II and Our Masters the Rebels: A Speculation on Union Military Failure in the East, 1861-1865, winner of the Museum of the Confederacy's Jefferson Davis Prize for the best Civil War book.

Senior military historian Michael C. C. Adams has written an unflinching account of the human costs of the Civil War, clustering the voices of myriad actual participants on the firing line or in the hospital ward to create a virtual historical reenactment. Living Hell presents a stark portrait of the human costs of the Civil War and gives readers an accurate appreciation of its profound and lasting consequences.

Drawing extensively on letters and memoirs of individual soldiers, Adams assembles vivid accounts of the distress Confederate and Union soldiers faced daily: sickness, exhaustion, hunger, devastating injuries, and makeshift hospitals, where saws were often the medical instrument of necessity.

Inverting Robert E. Lee’s famous line about war, Adams suggests that too many Americans become fond of war out of ignorance of its terrors. Providing a powerful counterpoint to Civil War glorification, Living Hell echoes William Tecumseh Sherman’s comment that war is cruelty and cannot be refined.

"This book has made an important contribution to Civil War studies by reminding us graphically of the war’s dark side."―New York Review of Books

"This essential book gives soldiers their due and presents the realities of war in a way few have dared. Ideal for anyone interested in military history."―Library Journal (starred review)

"Provides a vital gut-wrenching counterpoint to the Civil War's glamorization in America's collective memory, a perspective as important to understanding the war as any political history or general's biography."―Shelf Awareness

"In Adams’ hands, the Civil War’s legacy is unmitigated personal horror, societal suffering, and political factionalism . . . Living Hell engagingly opens up the 'dark side' of the Civil War to comparative scrutiny with other modern wars."―Civil War Monitor

"This powerful counterpoint to Civil War glorification paints a stark portrait of the true brutality of the conflict . . . Living Hell is a moving, often graphic, exploration of what the war did to men’s bodies and minds."―History Book Club

"Any who would truly understand the daily trials of the Civil War must have this book!"―Midwest Book Review

"A compelling and salutary reminder of the frightful miseries of war. All students of the Civil War and military history in general should contemplate the lessons of war's terrors revealed in this powerful and uncompromising book."―Michigan War Studies Review

Michael C. C. Adams, Regents Professor of History Emeritus at Northern Kentucky University, is the author of The Best War Ever: America and World War II and Our Masters the Rebels: A Speculation on Union Military Failure in the East, 1861–1865, winner of the Museum of the Confederacy’s Jefferson Davis Prize for the best Civil War book.