Absalom's War describes the experiences of the author's great-grand-uncle, a young Ohio farmer who joined the Union army in 1862, was wounded at Gettysburg and was killed at Kennesaw Mountain, GA in 1864. It's format is a unique "imagined reconstruction" of the experiences of an actual person about whom little is know, but much information is available on his family, his home state and counties, and his unit. The book takes advantage of numerous primary and secondary sources to give a vibrant and lively description of what it was like to grow up in Ohio in the 18302-1840s, join the army, fight in such major campaigns and battles as Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Chattanooga, go home on furlough during the turbulent run up in Ohio to the 1864 presidential election, and to rejoin the army for Sherman's campaign to seize Atlanta and march to the sea. Well illustrated with period art, maps, and photos taken by the author's wife, it is a unique and fascinating look at the conflict that gripped America 150 years ago, and the sacrifices of the average men who went to war so that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."