The riveting account of the first bloody showdown between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee-a battle that sealed the fate of the Confederacy and changed the course of American history.
In the spring of 1864, President Lincoln feared that he might not be able to save the Union. The Army of the Potomac had performed poorly over the previous two years, and many Northerners were understandably critical of the war effort. Lincoln assumed he'd lose the November election, and he firmly believed a Dematic successor would seek peace immediately, spelling an end to the Union. A Fire in the Wilderness tells the story of that perilous time when the future of the United States depended on the Union Army's success in a desolate forest roughly sixty-five miles from the nation's capital.

At the outset of the Battle of the Wilderness, General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia remained capable of defeating the Army of the Potomac. But two days of relentless fighting in dense...