Witness to War: The Story of the Civil War Told By Those Who Lived It

From the first shots at Fort Sumter to the mourning of Lincoln’s death-experience the Civil War as it happened, through the voices of those who were there. History comes to life in the words of those who lived through the American Civil War. The Civil War was one of the great events of United States history, and the widespread literacy of the mid-nineteenth century made it possible for an unprecedented number of Americans to record their thoughts, observations, descriptions, and opinions of the war.This book prints more than 500 letters-all of them in print for the first time-to reveal life during the Civil War.Presented chronologically from Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 through his assassination in 1865, the letters follow the entire arc of the Civil War as it unfolds in real time through the words of everyday people-military and civilian, Union and Confederate, white and black, men, women, and even a few children.In their own words, they offer deeply held opinions about Lincoln,