This volume is dominated by the almost continual confrontation of great armies. For the fourth time, the Army of the Potomac (now under the control of Burnside) attempts to take Richmond, resulting in the blood-bath at Fredericksburg. Then Joe Hooker tries again, only to be repulsed at Chancellorsville as Stonewall Jackson turns his flanka bitter victory for the South, paid for by the death of Lees foremost lieutenant. In the West, during the six-month standoff that followed the shock of Murfreesboro in the central theater, one of the most complex and determined sieges of the war has begun. Here Grants seven relentless efforts against Vicksburg show Lincoln that he has at last found his killer-general, the man who can face the arithmetic. With Vicksburg finally under siege, Lee again invades the North. The three-day conflict at Gettysburg receives book-length attention in a masterly treatment of a key great battle, not as legend has it but as it really was, before it became distorted by controversy and overblown by remembered glory.

Shelby Foote comes from a long line of Mississippians. He was born in Greenville, and attended school there until he entered the University of North Carolina. During World War II he served in the European theater as a captain of field artillery. He has written six novels—Tournament, Shiloh, Love in a Dry Season, Follow Me Down, Jordan County and September September. He was awarded three Guggenheim fellowships in the twenty-year course of writing his monumental three-volume history The Civil War: A Narrative.

Grover Gardner, named one of the "Best Voices of the Century" by AudioFile magazine, has recorded more than five hundred audiobooks. He is the recipient of more than thirteen Earphones Awards as well as an Audie Award. In addition to narrating, he has an active career as an actor and stage director. He lives in Washington, D.C.