Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War

From the first passage in William C. Davis’ book about “the twilight of America’s innocence: to the last, the reader is carried through what many in the 1860s believed would be the only major conflict between North and South. So optimistic were the people in Washington that a crowd of civilians came from the city with picnic hampers to witness the crushing defeat of the upstart “rebels.” The following day, however, the mood would shatter in a battle that confounded the expectations of both ...