The Passing of the Armies: An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army of the Potomac, Based Upon Personal Reminiscences of the Fifth Army Corps

"It was 1865 and the Army of the Potomac was on the move --in front of Petersburg, at White Oak Road, and Five Forks, outmaneuvering and outfighting a beleaguered enemy. In this extraordinary memoir, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the Fifth Corps records the dramatic final acts of the Civil War: Sheridan's rise, Warren's fall, and the slow, inexorable stalking of Lee's forces across the battle-scarred countryside. With rare eloquence, Chamberlain describes the troop movements, the clash and chaos of battle, and the soul of a Union army under the confident new command of U.S. Grant. Here is an unmatched portrait of war's end --from the moment a Confederate staff officer crossed the lines bearing a white flag to the cold gray morning at Appomattox that sealed the South's defeat and sent two armies home to a nation changed forever"--Page 4 of cover.