Portraits and readings from letters, speeches, and diaries bring the Civil War to life for middle and high school students. Period photographs and music, maps, and paintings interweave with sound effects and reenactments of troop engagements to chronicle major battles and their impacts on the overall direction of the war. Information about the leading personalities of the time and their lives after the war, as well as the day-to-day life of the ordinary foot soldier, gives a feeling for how the tragic conflict touched lives.