"While the role of engineers in the Civil War was critical to the success or failure of both armies, historians have until now not comprehensively examined the role of Confederate engineers in the western theater of the war. Larry J. Daniel's Engineering in the Confederate Heartland fills a gap in that historiography by analyzing the lives and accomplishments of professionally trained and novice engineers working for the Confederacy in the 175,000 square miles between the Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi River, commonly referred to as the western theater of the war. Daniel's engrossing examination of Confederate engineers in the West is bound to be of widespread interest to both Civil War scholars and enthusiasts"--