Nestled between the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers, Virginia's Culpeper County was one of the most strategically significant locations of the Civil War. Originally occupied by the Union army, it was recaptured by the South and eventually surrendered to the North. In this innovative work, Daniel E. Sutherland breathes life into Culpeper's Civil War saga. By weaving written documents from such notable personalities as Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Walt Whitman, and Clara Barton -- all of whom spent time in Culpeper -- with letters and diaries of residents struggling to maintain hearth and home amidst the conflict, Sutherland compellingly captures both the immediacy and the grandeur of war.