UNREFINED WAR

n the aftermath of the war, Herman Melville published Years later, Walt Whitman released . For many writers, it seemed that the best way to tell the war’s story was through specific moments and lives. S.C. Gwynne, in his, follows in that tradition. Gwynne presents a series of biographical portraits that illuminate the central events of 1864-65 and provide fresh insights into the personalities and motivations of a wide cast of characters ranging from Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and William T. Sherman to Robert E. Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and John Singleton Mosby.