Introduction Summary

The author gives background information about the novel, which is the third book in a Civil War trilogy as well as all the major characters. He also presents brief biographies for Robert Edward Lee, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Ulysses Simpson Grant. The starting point of the novel is just ten days after the major defeat of Lee's army at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. From 1861 to 1863, terribly bloody battles follow one another. At the opening point of the novel, July 13, 1863, the military careers of Lee, Chamberlain, and Grant had advanced to where these three men are the primary commanders in the story.

Introduction Analysis

The Introduction serves the purpose of orienting the reader to the historical background of the story. What had begun as an almost celebratory event, turns into a horribly bloody war that went on for year after year. The author promises that...