The year of 1861 was full of incidents that few people today are aware of. With original 1861 artwork on the book cover, this book brings forward what the public knew then, but does not know now. The cause of the American Civil War was not only over slavery as in the mix were state rights, tariffs, taxes and trade. This book concentrates on the war and the slaves. Shown within these pages is exactly as it was for both the north, the south and for those enslaved shown in the words of 1861. The Civil War officially began on April 12th in 1861 but did you know the first prisoner was taken three months earlier in January? Do you know the scenes of battles such as, an artillery man lay on the ground, nearly exhausted from loss of blood, and too weak to get out of the way of the tramping troops and horses that flitted about him. A mounted horseman came toward him when he raised the bleeding stumps of both his arms and cried out "Don't tread on me Capt'n See Both hands are gone."