A decade in the writing, this is the final volume of what many critics have called ';America's Iliad.' Here Foote brings to life the military endgame, the surrender at Appomattox, and the tragic denouement of the warthe assassination of President Lincoln.';To read this chronicle is an awesome and moving experience. History and literature are rarely so thoroughly combined as here; one finishes this volume convinced that no one need undertake this particular enterprise again.' Newsweek';In objectivity, in range, in mastery of detail, in beauty of language and feeling for the people involved, this work surpasses anything else on the subject. . . . Written in the tradition of the great historian-artistsGibbon, Prescott, Napier, Freemanit stands alongside the work of the best of them.' The New Republic';The most written-about war in history has, with this completion of Shelby Foote's trilogy, been given the epic treatment it deserves.' Providence Journal