Vicksburg: The battle that won the Civil War

I am in total agreement with the previous reviewers that this was a HARD READ for fifty year olds, as I too am in that age bracket! I wanted a "crash course" in Civil War books, as I am moving to Mississippi from New York in a couple of months. Being a librarian, I have been asked for information regarding women who "pretended to be men in order to become soldiers or spies. One such woman fought for the Union during the Red river campaign. Her real name was Jennie Hodgers, but she had enlisted under the name Albert Cashier..." (page 26) and I was glad that I gleaned the knowledge that it could be found in this book. I have been asked about "... the Union's enlistment of black freemen and former slaves. The new supply of fighting men gave the Union a huge advantage over the Confederacy, whose fighting force was dwindling. By the end of the war, black soldiers made up one-tenth of the North's army." (page 86) so this was an important factor to me. I have also been required to find information about "drummer boys" (page 58) which was of interest. I was aware of people watching the war as they picnicked near battlefields, and was aware this was a war of "brother against brother" but found it sobering none-the-less to read about how the truce was "conducted" (pages 59, 60)during this "time out." Many wars come-up with "new and improved" killing machines, "The Civil War was a new kind of war. The invention of guns that could shoot rapidly and accurately over a longer distance changed the rules. Now a mass charge against a well-positioned enemy was suicidal. Death tolls for short battles climbed at a terrifying pace..." (page 59), enlightening (tongue-in-cheek) and the revelation of "faux" monster ships (pages 26-27)"The telegraph, invented by Samuel Morse in 1844, changed the way wars would be fought..." I really learned something I had never known "To the people of Vicksburg the surrender was a crushing blow. They would not celebrate the Fourth of July again until the end of World War II." (page 83.)I knew of soldiers living in "dug out 'caves'" in the trenches but not aware of citizens living in the trenches as explained within.(pages 71-72). An excellent supplement to Civil War studies, as the author left no "stone unturned", but once again, it is a difficult study!