'The best account I have ever read of this 'saddest affair' is Richard Slotkin's novel. And The Crater is more than a battle narrative - superb though it is in that respect. It is good social history... Its republication offers a new generation of readers more than a vivid story - it will give them new insight into the meaning of America.' - from the Foreward by James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian.