From the dust jacket:
The Confederates surrendered at Appomattox more than five generations ago, but the Civil War continues to capture the American imagination. Millions fought in the conflict, and nearly 650,000 died. No event in the history of the United States has been as traumatic or as influential. Not only did the war wreak untold damage - destroying cities, ruining farmland, and leaving Americans with decades of social, political, and economic struggle - it also pushed to the fore issues with which the country still grapples, such as the rights of the individual and the power of the federal government.
With this volume, Time Life Books, publisher of numerous highly acclaimed volumes on the Civil War, tells the history of the conflict through more than 700 of the period's most compelling images and 23 insightful essays. Included are hundreds of rare and moving photographs, war-correspondent sketches, and original maps showing battles, key figures, unknown soldiers, historic artifacts, and more.
An Illustrated History of the Civil War, written by notable Civil War scholars, captures the drama and pathos of the major battles - Bull Run, Shiloh, Antietam, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and others - as well as the war's key turning points, such as the ascendance of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, and the changing response of America's civilian population to the horrifying carnage. Because the narrative carefully and artfully integrates each of the hundreds of illustrations, the result is an authoritative Civil War history that is as memorable as it is illuminating.
From the back cover: