1 The reversal took place between the two Roosevelts. T. R., one of the last liberal Republicans, curbed the power of corporations, increased the regulation of businesses, promoted environmentalism by creating national parks, and aimed for a Square Deal in which the average citizen got a fair share. After the defeat of liberal Republican President William Howard Taft’s reelection bid in 1912 by liberal Democrat Woodrow Wilson, the conservatives in the Republican Party pushed to the fore by 1916. When the Depression hit, conservative Republican Herbert Hoover tried to combat it by launching public works projects and raising taxes on the rich. This was followed by FDR, a liberal Democrat, establishing the New Deal, creating Social Security, and offering government jobs to ease unemployment, while regulating Wall Street and transportation. From then on, the reversal was complete.

2 A “brevet” or “bvt.” rank was a temporary rank awarded for outstanding service. After the war the brevet system was replaced with the awarding of medals.

3 Pickett didn’t actually sign his letters as “Soldier” or “Your Devoted Soldier.” Sallie initially published his letters anonymously and used this to hide his identity. She continued using it when the letters were republished under his name. He actually signed his letters, “Ever and forever your own George” or “Ever and ‘for ever’ your devoted husband George” or a similar variation.

4 Fort Pickens guards the entrance to Pensacola Harbor, near Florida’s border with Alabama.

5 General Halleck fulminated that Grant wasn’t responding to his requests for troop strength reports, so Halleck confined Grant while he investigated. It turned out that a telegraph operator sympathetic to the South wasn’t relaying Halleck’s telegrams to Grant. The operator soon fled to the South, taking the telegrams with him, and Halleck released Grant. It was many years before Grant discovered that Halleck was responsible for his arrest.

6 They must have captured someone familiar with Lee’s dispatches, or perhaps the report was published in one of the Southern newspapers.

7 An abatis (pronounced ab-uh-TEE) is a barrier in front of fortifications usually consisting of felled trees with sharpened branches pointing toward the opposing line.

8 Final figures put Union loses at 17,197, with Confederate losses of 12,764, including those killed, wounded, missing, and captured.

9 The Koreans may have had an ironclad turtle ship in the 16th century, but that’s hotly debated. The French had ironclad gun batteries on barges that they used to bombard Kinburn in 1855 during the Crimean War. Both France and England had ironclads before the Confederates launched the CSS Manassas.

10 The first American sub to be used in combat was the one-man Turtle, partially financed by George Washington and unsuccessfully used in New York Harbor in 1776 during the Revolutionary War.

11 Lee had hoped that sending Ewell to Harrisburg and Early to Wrightsville would force the Union to spread out the Army of the Potomac to protect Washington, D.C., and Baltimore while drawing Grant and the Union’s Army of the Tennessee away from their siege of Vicksburg, but this didn’t happen. Still, Lee was successful in drawing the Union army out of Virginia and into Pennsylvania.

12 Meade wanted Hancock to command the corps until Major-General Henry Slocum could take over. Slocum’s vacillations and delays earned him the derisive nickname “Slow Come.”

13 The Confederates appear to have misspelled his name on purpose as a propaganda ploy to make him seem like a foreigner, as there were many Europeans fighting for the Union. They also spelled it Rosencranz.

14 His leg was amputated just inches below his hip.

15 Davis had very strong feelings against Johnston.

16 Sykes’s questions were: “What Federal command was it that General Hindman was ordered to cut off in McLemore’s Cove near Lafayette, Ga., a few days preceding the battle of Chickamauga? And did Hindman have more than his own division? And was he not suspended from command for his failure? Would not his success on that occasion have given you great advantage over the remainder of the enemy?”

17 The questions were: “Was not General D. H. Hill’s critical, captious and dictatorial manner one of the prime causes of the failure of the army to defeat General Grant at Mission Ridge? Or, was it as reported by you to the department at Richmond, in substance, attributable to the unaccountable and inexplicable conduct of a portion of our troops? And if attributable to the latter, what troops?”

18 The order, written down by one of Rosecrans’s aides and sent without being reviewed, said to “close up” and “support.” Rosecrans had just castigated Wood for not following orders promptly, so Wood wasn’t about to argue. In order to close up on or support Reynolds, Wood had to get on the other side of Brigadier-General John Brannan’s division. There wasn’t room to close up, so he moved behind Reynolds as support.

19 Grant said this not so much about the men but because division commanders Brigadier-Generals Ledlie and Ferrero remained in a bunker near the Union line during the battle.

20 This is one of several condemnations of Meade, although he wasn’t specifically named.

21 This became the South’s version of Mt. Rushmore, with the carved images of Davis, Lee, and Stonewall Jackson on horseback.

22 These twisted rails became known as “Sherman’s neckties.”

23 These militias consisted primarily of the elderly and boys. Most men between the ages of seventeen and fifty had already been drafted into the Confederate army.

24 After Longstreet relieved McLaws of his command, McLaws was transferred to fight Sherman in Georgia.

25 It was actually three miles.

26 He wasn’t.

27 If he said this at all, his words most likely were: “Damn the torpedoes! Four bells. Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!”—but the paraphrased version has a better ring to it.

28 At St. Albans, Vermont, on October 19, 1864, raiders from one of the Confederacy’s espionage headquarters in Canada apparently planned to burn down the governor’s mansion, rob three banks, and then set the village on fire. They only succeeded in robbing two banks and killing one civilian before fleeing back to Canada. They were captured in Canada, but a judge there released them. Two more times Canadian authorities arrested five of the men, but each time judges released them. The Confederate government was allowed to keep the stolen money, while the Canadian government reimbursed the banks.
On November 25, 1864, soon after the presidential election, Confederate saboteurs from Canada set fire to a number of New York City hotels and landmarks, hoping the city would go up in flames, but the New York fire departments quickly extinguished the fires. Most of the saboteurs fled back to Canada. These would be considered acts of terrorism today since they were directed at civilians.

29 Lincoln wanted to see the Confederate capital, so—accompanied by his son Tad, Admiral Porter, a captain, a bodyguard, and a guard of just twelve marines—he entered the city mere hours after the Confederates left with the Union Army close behind. Disembarking from a boat, they walked past Libby Prison where Union prisoners-of-war were held, to President Davis’s mansion, then to the State-House where the Confederate Congress had held its sessions. They were mobbed by crowds the entire way. Though Lincoln towered over everyone, no one tried to harm him. Lincoln knew some people wanted to kill him—someone had put a bullet through his hat just eight months earlier—but he tried to play down the danger and make like everything was normal. Most seemed thrilled to see him, particularly the former slaves.

30 Wilmer McLean’s house in the small community called Appomattox Court House.

31 See page xviii.