First blood

A dramatic chain of events triggered the first battle of the Civil War, which climaxed with the shelling and surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. And the battle's moves and countermoves spelled out the issues and emotions of the long, national blood-letting to follow. Swanberg tells how the North acted with disbelief, bumbling indecision, and finally with firm resolve; the South spat flaming rhetoric that carried it past the point of no return and into grim reality.