Sharpsburg [Hardcover]

The Civil War, sometimes called The American Iliad, is an epic of violence, rage, bravery, and love, whose echoes still can be heard. America's bloodiest day was September 17, 1862--the Battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg, which enabled President Lincoln to issue a proclamation freeing all slaves in the rebellious states. The battle's story is told here by two soldiers: a Yankee, who fights for union, justice, and equality; and a Rebel, for whom the war is a battle for freedom. Both voices still haunt today's struggles over race, rights, and the flag. Through the eyes and voices of two soldiers who fought at Antietam, one Confederate and one Union, Kent Gramm cuts to the core of that terrible experience and its larger meaning in blank verse of eloquence and power. Each soldier fought for his own version of liberty, giving their stories a tragic irony that stands for the deeper meaning of the Civil War. --James M. McPherson, author of The War That Forged a Nation Kent Gramm is the author of Gettysburg, November, Somebody's Darling, Clare, The Prayer of Jesus, Gettysburg: This Hallowed Ground (with Chris Heisey), and the editor of Battle: The Nature and Consequences of Civil War Combat. A winner of the Hart Crane Poetry Prize, he has published two books of poetry: Psalms for Skeptics and Psalms for the Poor. He teaches Civil War Era Studies and Creative Writing at Gettysburg College.