1861 : the Civil War awakening / Adam Goodheart

"This is a Borzoi book"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [445]-456) and index.

Prologue : a banner at daybreak : Charleston Harbor, December 1860 -- Wide awake : Boston, October 1860 -- The old gentlemen : Washington, January 1861 -- Forces of nature : central Ohio, February 1861 -- A shot in the dark : Charleston Harbor, April 1861 -- The volunteer : lower Manhattan, April 1861 -- Gateways to the west : Carson Valley, Nevada Territory, May 1861 -- The crossing : Washington, May 1861 -- Freedom's fortress : Hampton Roads, Virginia, May 1861 -- Independence Day : Washington, D.C., July 1861.

1861 presents a gripping and original account of how the Civil War began. 1861 is an epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields. Early in that fateful year, a second American revolution unfolded, inspiring a new generation to reject their parents' faith in compromise and appeasement, to do the unthinkable in the name of an ideal. It set Abraham Lincoln on the path to greatness and millions of slaves on the road to freedom. The book introduces us to a heretofore little-known cast of Civil War heroes--among them an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer's wife, an idealistic band of German immigrants, a regiment of New York City firemen, a community of Virginia slaves, and a young college professor who would one day become president. Adam Goodheart takes us from the corridors of the White House to the slums of Manhattan, from the mouth of the Chesapeake to the deserts of Nevada, from Boston Common to Alcatraz Island, vividly evoking the Union at this moment of ultimate crisis and decision.