This magisterial history of the first modern war is on the scale of John Keegan's classics, A History of Warfare and The First World War. In his sweeping, unputdownable narrative he highlights the geography, leadership and strategic logic at the heart of the conflict. John Keegan writes: "The geography of the battlefield is to me a living reality. I know the appearance of the battlefields, I know the distances between them, I know the cemeteries in which the dead were buried. What constantly puzzles me, however, is to relate the landmarks of the war to its events, chronology, strategy and logic. That war went on for so long – four years – over such an enormous space – the Confederacy covered an area as large as Europe west of Russia – and involved so many battles – 260 is the common reckoning – and so many people that its events conform to no pattern at all... The Civil War is certainly a story of the struggle of man against man; it is equally a story of the struggle of man against geography, in which those who had a feel for the country eventually succeeded because they knew how to work with the landscape instead of ignoring or defying it."

While the giant armies of the Union and the Confederacy were fighting over cities and strategic strongholds, a large number of warriors from both sides were fighting, smaller, more personal battles. Beginning with the violent struggle known as Bleeding Kansas armed bands of irregular fighters began to wage war in every corner of the United States. Many of the names of their commanders have become legendary: William Quantrill, Bloody Bill Anderson, and John S Mosby - The Grey Ghost. To their own people they were heroes; to others they were the first of a new generation of wild-west outlaw. Their tactics included robbing banks, kidnapping soldiers & civilians, rustling cattle, and cutting telegraph lines. In fact, it is during the violence of the war that many of America's future outlaw legends would be born, most notably Cole Younger and Frank and Jesse James.