masterful narrative history of the Civil War brings to life the military endgame, the surrender at Appomattox, and the tragic dénouement of the war--the assassination of President Lincoln.

Features maps throughout.

"An unparalleled achievement, an American Iliad, a unique work uniting the scholarship of the historian and the high readability of the first-class novelist." --Walker Percy

"To read this chronicle is an awesome and moving experience. History and literature are rarely so thoroughly combined as here; one finishes this volume convinced that no one need undertake this particular enterprise again." --Newsweek

"In objectivity, in range, in mastery of detail, in beauty of language and feeling for the people involved, this work surpasses anything else on the subject. . . . Written in the tradition of the great historian-artists--Gibbon, Prescott, Napier, Freeman--it stands alongside the work of the best of them." --The New Republic

"The most written-about war in history has, with this completion of Shelby Foote's trilogy, been given the epic treatment it deserves." --Providence Journal