Out of the Storm: The End of the Civil War, April-June 1865

In this concluding volume of a trilogy, Trudeau ( Bloody Roads South ; The Last Citadel ) relies on firsthand accounts to tell the compelling story of the Confederacy's death throes. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, marked only the beginning of the end: the Civil War had gone on too long to end in a single stroke. Confederate government was still intact, and large Confederate forces remained in the field. While Union cavalry ravaged northern Alabama, Union infantry stormed the fortress of Mobile. Men continued to die in obscure skirmishes from Texas to South Carolina. Trudeau's richly textured presentation never loses focus in depicting the complex course of events from the final days of the Army of Northern Virginia, through the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, to the growing recognition in the South and the North that the great national tragedy was finally over. This is a major contribution to the field. (Apr.)