Written in the thick of the conflict by prominent financial and political journalist Thomas Prentice Kettell, this book offers a rare, unfiltered look at the Civil War as it unfolded. Kettell avoids the benefit of historical hindsight, instead pulling raw data directly from active battlefield dispatches, official state papers, and public documents from both the Union and the Confederacy. The narrative meticulously pieces together the economic and political fracturing that led to secession before launching into highly detailed accounts of major military campaigns, naval blockades, and soldier life. What makes Kettell's 1864 work stand out is its deep focus on the logistical and financial machinery keeping the armies afloat, alongside steel engravings of prominent generals. It reads like a massive, urgent intelligence briefing, offering a fascinating window into how the 19th-century public processed the immense, ongoing cost of a war that had not yet reached its conclusion.