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The American Civil War raged for four years before it culminated in the peace treaty made in the village of Appomattox Court House by the dapper, well-dressed Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the shabby, rough-looking Ulysses S. Grant, who went on to become the 18th president of the United States. The confederates in the South were fighting to hang on to a traditional way of life in which the agricultural economy was kept going by the work of millions of slaves. Society had moved on in the urban centres, outlawing slavery and beginning the long process of integrating former slaves into the community. The battle between north and south was not fought by two single armies, but between a number of independent armies that espoused each cause, for instance the Army of the Potomac on the Union side, commanded by legendary General Meade, while Lee himself was commander of the Army of Northern Virginia before being given overall Confederate command. When the Confederates were close to defeat, Grant sent Robert E. Lee the first of a series of notes inviting him to surrender, concluding "Let us stop all this senseless killing". Lee was calculating his chances of getting through to a new source of supplies in the Shenandoah Valley, but as the Union armies closed in he realised he had no options left. The book includes many interesting features, such as the story of the Union XXV Corps, consisting of freed slaves including a woman, Cathay Williams, disguised as a man. 150pp, softback pocket volume, numerous archive photos. A classic from the 1950s.