Mystic Chords of Memory

In this pictorial work, David J. Eicher not only visits the most famous Civil War battlefields - Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Antietam among them - but also introduces readers to an array of lesser-known battle sites as well as monuments, forts, houses and farms, cemeteries, and museums. The color photographs, chosen from Eicher's vast personal collection, are supplemented by powerful, historical black-and-white photographs that propel readers back to the Civil War era. The resulting work captures the most important, unusual, and interesting places associated with the war as they stand today. Eicher's probing analysis of the arduous four-year struggle provides background on its origins, interpretations of its major battles, and a summary of the war's aftermath. Peppered with more than 150 quotations from the journals, letters, and diaries of Civil War participants, the narrative allows readers to absorb the human aspects of the greatest of America's national tragedies.