If war is 'hell', as Sherman wrote, then it is also theater. The stage may be a burning city, tough country hedgerows or wide, bloody beaches. It may be soft green fields, mud-filled trenches or clear skies streaked with the lovely contrails of men above trying to kill other men as they fly. But ever since the time of Homer, only the props and costumes have changed.

Although it is the 'people' who concern us most, the 'theater' provides a most dramatic and, in fact, little known backdrop. The last four months of the Civil War has been called the most critical and important months in American history: "There probably never was a month so full of peril, so packed with action, so frightened with significance, as April, 1865."

A CATHEDRAL IN HELL is the second novel in the four volume series, TILL THEY BEG FOR MERCY. Volume III, DESPERATE BATTLE, will be available in September, 2012.