This first volume of Shelby Foote's classic narrative of the Civil War opens with Jefferson Davis's farewell to the United States Senate and ends on the bloody battlefields of Antietam and Perryville, as the full, horrible scope of America's great war becomes clear. Exhaustively researched and masterfully written, Foote's epic account of the Civil War unfolds like a novel.';A stunning book full of color, life, character and a new atmosphere of the Civil War, and at the same time a narrative of unflagging power. Eloquent proof that an historian should be a writer above all else.' Burke Davis';Anyone who wants to relive the Civil War . . . will go through this volume with pleasure. . . . Years from now, Foote's monumental narrative most likely will continue to be read and remembered as a classic of its kind.' New York Herald Tribune Book Review';To read this great narrative is to love the nation. . . . Whitman, who ultimately knew and loved the bravery and frailty of the soldiers, observed that the real Civil War would never be written and perhaps should not be. For me, Shelby Foote has written it. . . . This work was done to last forever.' James M. Cox, Southern Review