Jeff Shaara

"In May 1863, after months of hard and bitter combat, Union troops under the command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant at long last successfully cross the Mississippi River. They force the remnants of Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's army to retreat to Vicksburg, burning the bridges over the Big Black River in its path. But after sustaining heavy casualties in two failed assaults against the rebels, Union soldiers are losing confidence...

Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain left behind a quiet life and a career as a college professor to fight for the Union. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was a man of great religious faith who served in the defense of the Confederacy. And Gen. Robert E. Lee, who led the Confederate army, was a man who was forced to choose between his loyalty to the United States and his love of the Southern states where he was born and raised. As Chamberlain, Jackson,...