Manassas, Hampton Roads, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Brandy Station, Spotsylvania, New Market, Cedar Creek, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Appomattox Courthouse are names that remain synonymous with valour, sacrifice and finally, defeat during the Civil War. These sites comprise but a handful of the more than 200 military engagements that took place in Virginia, the largest and richest of the Southern states. Nowhere in the nation was the full fury of the Civil War felt as it was in Virginia which saw the death, wounding and capture of over half a million men and the end of institutions that had helped perpetuate an outmoded economic system which had enslaved millions. Noted Civil War historian, James I. Robertson Jr, presents an overview of the pivotal state, caught in the midst of the most traumatic of national events.