HYMNS OF THE REPUBLIC

From the bestselling, award-winning, celebrated author of Empire of the Summer Moon comes a spellbinding, epic account of the final year and dramatic conclusion of the Civil War.

The fourth and final year of the Civil War offers one of that era's most compelling narratives, not least because it is an endgame: all roads lead to Appomattox on April 9, 1865, when Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia, and to Durham, North Carolina on April 26, when Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered 90,000 rebel troops in the rest of the South. Lincoln's own story, perhaps the most remarkable of any single figure in American history, ends with his death on April 14, six days after Appomattox and 12 days before the official end of the war. The way the war ended was itself nation-defining and one of history's great turning points.

Hymns of the Republic follows roughly from the time Ulysses S. Grant arrives to take command of all Union armies in March 1864 to the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox a year later. Subjects include the epic battle between Lee and Grant (the two had never faced each other before), the advent of 180,000 black soldiers in the Union army (10 percent of the army), William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea, the rise of Clara Barton, the election of 1864 (which Lincoln nearly lost), the wild and violent guerrilla war in the most violent state in the Union (Missouri), and the dramatic final events of the war including the surrender at Appomattox and the murder of Abraham Lincoln.

Hymns of The Republic offers angles and insights on the war that will surprise many readers. Robert E. Lee, known as a great general and southern hero, is presented here as a man dealing with frustration, failure, and loss. Ulysses S. Grant is known for his prowess as a field commander. But in this final year of the war he largely fails at that. His most amazing accomplishments had nothing to do with fighting, and actually began the moment he stopped fighting. As most generals were measured, William Tecumseh Sherman was in fact a lousy general. He had performed poorly in battle. Gwynne nonetheless argues that he was probably the single most brilliant man in the war, whose genius in part was to offer up an entirely new definition of genius. Readers will also meet Clara Barton, one of the greatest and most compelling characters in a war that featured few women in positions of prominence. She redefined the idea of medical care in wartime. Though her name is familiar, few people can tell you why she is famous. Nor is the role played by large numbers of black union soldiers - most of them former slaves - widely known or understood. They changed the war. And they actually forced the South to come up with a plan to use its own black soldiers.

S.C. "Sam" Gwynne is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Empire of the Summer Moon, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Rebel Yell, which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was short-listed for the PEN Literary Award for biography. He is also the author of The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football. He is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared extensively in Time, for which he worked as bureau chief, national correspondent, and senior editor from 1988 to 2000, and in Texas Monthly, where he was executive editor. His work has also appeared in Outside magazine, the New York Times, the Dallas Morning News, the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Harper's, and California magazine. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, the artist Katie Maratta, and daughter, Maisie.