| | List of Maps | p. vii |
| | Introduction | p. xi |
| | North and South Divide | p. 3 |
| | Will There Be a War? | p. 24 |
| | Improvised Armies | p. 38 |
| | Running the War | p. 58 |
| | The Military Geography of the Civil War | p. 67 |
| | The Life of the Soldier | p. 74 |
| | Plans | p. 82 |
| | McClellan Takes Command | p. 113 |
| | The War in Middle America | p. 153 |
| | Lee's War in the East, Grant's War in the West | p. 163 |
| | Chancellorsville and Gettysburg | p. 179 |
| | Vicksburg | p. 204 |
| | Cutting the Chattanooga-Atlanta Link | p. 221 |
| | The Overland Campaign and the Fall of Richmond | p. 237 |
| | Breaking into the South | p. 259 |
| | The Battle off Cherbourg and the Civil War at Sea | p. 280 |
| | Black Soldiers | p. 289 |
| | The Home Fronts | p. 302 |
| | Walt Whitman and Wounds | p. 313 |
| | Civil War Generalship | p. 321 |
| | Civil War Battle | p. 333 |
| | Could the South Have Survived? | p. 344 |
| | The End of the War | p. 348 |
| | Notes | p. 367 |
| | Bibliography | p. 371 |
| | Acknowledgements | p. 375 |
| | Index | p. 377 |