Slavery and four years of war

The author first presents a political history of slavery in the United States, tracing its introduction, constitutional and legislative controversies, territorial disputes and compromises, the slavery question's role in party politics, and the chain of events that led to secession. He then offers a soldier's memoir of the Civil War, narrating campaigns and battles in Western Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, recounting occupations, engagements, the New York draft riots, efforts at peace negotiations, emancipation in contested regions, and concluding with the final operations that ended the conflict, supplemented with personal observations of officers and wartime incidents.