Nowhere can intricacies of the ideological, regional, and economic tensions that erupted into the American Civil War be better seen than in the individual actors who fought both on and off the battlefields and on either side for what they believed. While some vigorously struggled for emancipation, others vehemently resisted such a notion, while still others were motivated primarily by regional loyalties and the desire to preserve the only way of life they knew. This penetrating volume profiles many of the soldiers, generals, political leaders, and social activists who left indelible marks on the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, thereby altering the entire course of American history.