Gettysburg is past and the Civil War advances to its third brutal year. Never has the cumbersome Union Army so desperately needed a decisive leader, and it is at this critical moment that Lincoln places Ulysses S. Grant in command. Mourning the loss of the irreplaceable Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee asks for the total devotion of his generals—Longstreet, Hill, Stuart—and with his unswerving faith in God, he is determined to fight to the bitter end. Battle by battle, Jeff Shaara dramatizes the costly confrontation between Lee and Grant, and the sudden collapse of the Confederate army at Appomattox.

"Compelling, easy to read, well researched and written, and thought-provoking…. In short, it is everything that a reader could ask for."—Chicago Tribune