The drama, passion and excitement of 15 disastrous American Civil War battles is recreated in Lethal Glory: Dramatic Defeats of the Civil War. These were battles that saw some of the largest losses in the war and which were a catastrophe for the losers, but remained hollow victories for the winners since none of these defeats were followed up, and none were enough to end the war.

Renowned American Civil War historian Philip Katcher tells of frantic and frenzied fighting, of inexperienced and untrained soldiers, ordinary men whose bravery and loyalty to their comrades would lead them to their deaths. He portrays weak and incompetent commanders who had often never entered the gates of a military academy, issuing their orders from safe areas far away from the battle sites, as well as great military leaders willing to fight alongside their men for a cause in which they strongly believed.

The author describes the insufficient intelligence and inadequate reconnaissance work upon which those in charge relied, and he brings to life the soldiers' enthusiasm, turning into desperation and desertion in many cases, and the stoical behaviour others displayed in the face of disaster, in a situation where there could be no place for fear.

The fifteen battles retold include the very first action of the war, when Federal troops in Fort Sumter, Charleston, were forced to surrender to their Southern attackers, through to the fierce battle at Fort Stedman, the last to be fought by the Army of Northern Virginia (led by General Robert E Lee), where the Confederates suffered some of the heaviest losses of the entire war. Philip Katcher includes first-hand accounts, outlines of the units involved and the effect of each particular action on the campaign as a whole, as well as providing vivid character studies of the principle figures in each battle.

This exciting and thrilling book will appeal to Civil War and general historians and students of US history while entertaining lovers of adventure non-fiction, wargamers and modellers.