Keith D. Dickson is Professor Emeritus of military studies, National Defense University. Dr. Dickson served in the U.S. Army as a Special Forces officer and taught at the Joint Forces Staff College, Joint Advanced Warfighting School.

Introduction 1
 
Part 1: The War and Its Causes 7
 
Chapter 1: How Did the War Happen? 9
 
Chapter 2: The Five Steps to War: 1850-1860 19
 
Chapter 3: Secession and War: 1860-1861 39
 
Part 2: Making War 53
 
Chapter 4: Civil War Armies: Structure and Organization 55
 
Chapter 5: Union and Confederate Strategy 73
 
Chapter 6: Organizing and Training the Armies 81
 
Chapter 7: Significant Weapons of the Civil War 85
 
Part 3: Opening Moves, 1861-1862 91
 
Chapter 8: Starting the War: Bull Run (First Manassas), July 1861 93
 
Chapter 9: Trouble West of the Mississippi and the Road to Shiloh, August 1861-April 1862 105
 
Chapter 10: Union Navy Victories and Union Army Defeats, March-July 1862 125
 
Chapter 11: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign, March-June 1862 141
 
Chapter 12: The Seven Days of Robert E Lee, June-July 1862 151
 
Chapter 13: Second Bull Run (Manassas), August 1862 163
 
Chapter 14: The Bloodiest Day: Antietam (Sharpsburg), September 1862 173
 
Chapter 15: Lost Opportunities for the Confederacy in the West: September-October 1862 189
 
Chapter 16: War So Terrible: Fredericksburg and Murfreesboro, December 1862 201
 
Part 4: War to the Hilt, 1863-1865 217
 
Chapter 17: The Battle of Chancellorsville, May 1863 219
 
Chapter 18: The Battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, July 1863 229
 
Chapter 19: The Battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga, August-November 1863 255
 
Chapter 20: Lee and Grant: Operations in Virginia, May-October 1864 273
 
Chapter 21: The Atlanta Campaign and a Guarantee of Union Victory, May-December 1864 295
 
Chapter 22: The Destruction of Hood's Army in Tennessee, October 1864-January 1865 313
 
Chapter 23: A Matter of Time: Petersburg to Appomattox, January-April 1865 319
 
Part 5: Behind the Lines 341
 
Chapter 24: The Confederacy: Creating a Nation at War 343
 
Chapter 25: The Union at War: Creating a New Republican Future for America 365
 
Chapter 26: Wartime in America: Its Effect on the People 375
 
Part 6: The Civil War Tourist 391
 
Chapter 27: Getting Ready to Travel 393
 
Chapter 28: Visiting a Civil War Battlefield 399
 
Part 7: The Part of Tens 405
 
Chapter 29: The Ten Worst Generals of the Civil War 407
 
Chapter 30: The Ten Biggest "Firsts" of the Civil War 417
 
Chapter 31: The Ten Biggest "What Ifs" of the Civil War 425
 
Chapter 32: The Ten+ Best Battlefields of the Civil War and How to Visit Them 431
 
Index 437

Take a walk through history with this guide for lifelong learners
 
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* Explorations of how slavery and civil rights fit into the social, political, and economic context of the time
* Profiles of some of the most famous generals in the war, including Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant
 
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