Includes bibliographical references and index.

A Civil War Timeline--Key Events, 1860-1865 -- The Fiery Trial--The Civil War in Historical Perspective -- A Brief Historical Overview of the Civil War -- The American Ways of Life, North and South -- Documents -- The North and South Prepare for Conflict -- Early Exuberance Gives Way to Steady Determination -- The Warring Sections Persevere through Weary Months of Struggle -- The War's Concluding Phases Bring Triumph and Sorrow -- Reflecting -- Ideas for Exploration.

The American Civil War was primarily a conflict of cultures, and slavery was the largest single cultural factor separating North and South. This collection of carefully selected memoirs, diaries, letters, and reminiscences of ordinary Northerners and Southerners who experienced the war as soldiers or civilians brings to life the conflict in culture, principles, attitudes, hopes, courage, and suffering of both sides. Woodworth, a Civil War historian, has selected a wide variety of moving first-person accounts. Each account tells a story of a life and reveals the attitudes of ordinary people and the real conditions of war--both in the field and on the homefront. Woodworth presents the war in the words of those who lived it. These accounts and the narrative discussion of the difference in culture will help readers to understand the Civil War as a conflict of cultures. Telling the story of the war as personal history makes the experience of the Civil War come alive for readers.