Prologue

Dedicated to my Civil War troopers, Monica, Tim and Moe

    We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break 

    our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every

    battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this 

    broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely 

    they will be, by the better angels of our nature.   

Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address,  March 4, 1861

The American Civil War of 1861-65 is Greek tragedy writ large. A heroic symbol in the form of an idealistic new nation. A fatal flaw in its wanton embrace of chattel slavery and racism. Then bloody warfare, 750,000 deaths, economic ruin, and a precarious future. This book traces the year by year course of the conflict.