1863: The Rebirth of a Nation
For the United States, embroiled in a civil war against the Confederacy, 1863 began with Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation and ended with the completion of the Capitol's dome. In between were crucial battles at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. Despite the uninspired title,1863is a well-written chronicle, a biography of 12 months that one North Carolina diarist described as "a year of calamity and distress." Although this is largely a military history, author Joseph E. Stevens populates his pages with characters from all walks of life. He conveys a powerful sense of the time, and his rich, anecdote-laden prose is absorbing. Several dozen pictures and maps enrich the text, allowing readers to examine photographs of the book's main figures and follow the course of the battles.The story is also full of dramatic tension, as the Union struggles to put down the Confederate rebellion; the North wins important contests, and while they never seem to be able to deliver the fatal blow, there is a sense of inevitability. By December, it is hard to disagree with the assessment of New Yorker John Templeton Strong: "[1863] has proved a far better year for the country than it promised at its birth." War would rage throughout the following year and into 1865, as well--leaving us reason to hope Stevens will write a couple of sequels.--John J. Miller