The Civil War was a military, cultural, political, and economic milestone in American history. For four years the nation was in a bloody divide that extended from the East Coast to the pioneer West ...

A common explanation is that the Civil War was fought over the moral issue of slavery. In fact, it was the economics of slavery and political control of that system that was central to the conflict.

The Civil War was fought in 10,000 ... Inevitably, we grasp the war through such hyperbole. In so doing, we tend to blur the fact that real people lived through it and were changed by the event.