Book excerpt: General William Rosecran's Union Army has given the Southern Army under Braxton Bragg a good thrashing down through the State of Tennessee. Rosecran now stands on the border of north Georgia ready to launch the final assualt to rip the very bowels out of the Confederacy. The two opposing Commanders, proud to a fault, have their reputations at stake. They will either bask in the glorious accolades bestowed on the victor, or shrink away in disgrace, to anonymity. However, the subordinate officers and the men in the ranks have a bigger stake in this event: either live through it or die in it. For sure instant changes will be visited upon their lives. Men will be broken, heart and soul. Some will be crippled, some will survive, haunted by the nightmare for the rest of their days. But the beast of all wars must be fed.