Civil War historian Marvel (Lincoln's Darkest Year
), a winner of the Lincoln Prize, demonstrates his usual command of archival and published sources in this significantly revisionist account of the Civil War's third year from the Union perspective. He challenges conventional triumphalism, demonstrating comprehensively that despite Vicksburg and Gettysburg, by 1863 Northern citizens and soldiers were increasingly and openly wondering whether preserving the union and ending slavery were worth the cost of “Mr. Lincoln's war.” Disillusion and war-weariness had set in: the war's only fruits seemed to be moral and political degradation, dangerous constitutional precedents, tens of thousands dead and maimed. The Battle of Chickamauga appeared to have restored the stalemate. Marvel particularly conveys the looming crisis of the impending expiration of the three-year enlistments that were the Union army's norm. That, combined with the increasing reluctance of Northern men to volunteer or send their sons, could have ended the war by default. “Romance and adventure” or “misery and peril”—which emotions would prevail? As Marvel conclusively demonstrates, the coin remained in the air as 1863 came to an end. 32 b&w photos, 6 maps. (June 22)
