In this brilliant fictional tour de force that can be read as a novel or performed as readers' theater, the Newbery Award-winning author recreates the first great battle of the Civil War from the points of view of 16 participants--Northern and Southern, male and female, black and white.

Winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction * ALA Best Book for Young Adults * ALA Notable Children's Book

In this brilliant fictional tour de force, which the New York Times called "a deft, poignant novel," Newbery Medal-winning author Paul Fleischman re-creates the first great battle of the Civil War from the points of view of sixteen participants.

Northern and Southern, male and female, white and black. Here are voices that tell of the dreams of glory, the grim reality, the hopes, horror, and folly of a nation discovering the true nature of war.