Beginning with the first battle at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy's General Pierre G.T. Beauregard and the Union's Major Robert Anderson began the war, and ending with the last battle when the thoroughly beaten General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to General William T. Sherman on April 26, 1865, this work--in excellent prose and with a keen sense of drama and will, crisis and fate--summarizes the action of the Civil War.

In chronological order are descriptions of each battle-- infantry, artillery, and cavalry--and the names of the commanding and other Confederate and Union senior officers. Naval battles in open seas are excluded, although those battles that involved both infantry and naval forces are included. Also omitted are minor skirmishes, cavalry actions that might best be categorized as "raids," and all action in Florida and west of the Mississippi River.