“A vivid portrait of the Confederacy at a moment when it still believed that triumph was inevitable, yet when the ingredients of its defeat were self-evident.”—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World

“Through his copious, informative notes, Trask adds a great deal to this vivid account of an English hardware merchant’s travels in the Deep South during the Civil War autumn of 1862. . . . Perhaps because he was a stranger, however sympathetic to the southern cause, this Englishman gives a fresh perspective of the South at war, whereas local diarists took much of the ordinary for granted.”—Publishers Weekly

“Many of Corsan’s predictions proved wrong, but at a time when the Civil War is so overanalyzed, it is refreshing to be reminded how difficult it was to foresee an end that today sometimes seems inevitable.”—Virginia Libraries