The book by the prominent American historian James Ford Rhodes, which won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1918, covers in detail the course of the American Civil War, from the secession of the southern states in 1860–1861. until the surrender of the armies of the South in 1865. Here are vivid portraits of the main leaders - US President Abraham Lincoln and the first and only President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis, commanders of the Northern forces - Ulysses Grant, William Sherman, George Thomas, George Meade, Joseph Hooker, George McClellan, as well as Robert E. Lee , Thomas Jackson, Joseph Johnston, James Longstreet - commanders of the southern forces; both their actions on the battlefield and their participation in political debates that took place in Washington and Richmond are described. The main, according to Rhodes, reason for the bloodiest war on American soil - slavery - is fully revealed. The study, created on the basis of documentary materials, deserves the attention of everyone interested in military and political history.