1861A gripping and original account of how the Civil War began and a second American revolution unfolded, setting Abraham Lincoln on the path to greatness and millions of slaves on the road to freedom. An epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields, 1861 introduces us to a heretofore little known cast of Civil War heroesamong them an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorers wife, an idealistic band of German immigrants, a regiment of New York City