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Rich with insight, Hess's book merits recognition among the most insightful studies of the Civil War fighting man of the past half-century. - Civil War History Packs an emotional punch.... Hess explores less why Billy Yank fought than how he coped successfully with the stresses and horrors of combat, both during the war and afterward. - Journal of American History The most telling examination of the experience of Civil War battle we have. - William C. Davis, author of The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy This book stands out as the best yet written within the genre. Hess takes us as close as we're likely to get to the shock and horror of battle without actually experiencing it. - Steven E. Woodworth, author of Davis and Lee at War A major contribution. - Infantry In a superb book, the finest to date on the ordeal of combat, Hess describes most memorably the sounds and smells and feel of combat; the randomness of death; the psychology of the battle line; changing definitions of courage; the Christian soldiers' struggle with the sinfulness of killing.... - American Historical Review

Earl J. Hess, professor of history at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee, is the author of Liberty, Virtue, and Progress: Northerners and Their War for the Union and coauthor of Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West.