An interesting historiographical project in and of itself, I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling style that wove the lives of four disparate white women on the different sides of the American Civil War. There were times when I get jarred by the sensory details given in the act of telling the action, because how in the world would one be able to verify the clamminess of one's hands and somesuch? Though to be fair this has also been something that tripped me up as I read Erik Larson's Devil in the White City and Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra. I actually think that Abbot is the most compelling historian writing in this vein.