Volume 3, The Bleeding, presents the tragic story of the Civil War, more correctly named the Federal Invasion of the Confederacy.
Refusing to participate in Abraham Lincoln's call to invade the Confederacy, four States -- Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas -- quickly secede and join in defending the Confederacy. Having obviously prepared in advance, State militia from the northern States, all of them controlled by Republican Governors, descend upon Maryland, and Missouri and intimidate Kentucky as Republican leaders successfully execute the first phase of their invasion plan: to gain control over the State governments of Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, which had Democrat Governors and legislatures.
The Federal subjugation campaigns of the State governments in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri are covered in detail. In fact, the struggle in Missouri is covered in great detail, with full accounts of the activities of Frank Blair, Nathaniel Lyon, Claiborne Jackson, Sterling Price and Hamilton Gamble,
Through Stephen Douglas, who dies of cancer as the invasion gets underway, I report how many Democrats in the northern States team up with their Republican adversaries in support of the Federal invasion effort.
Then follows the account of the invasion and the defense of the Confederacy, told primarily through the parallel biographies of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Through the biographies of Charles Sumner and Thad Stevens, I relate the political maneuvering in the Federal Senate and House.
Appropriate attention is given to the jailing of thousands of anti-war activists, censorship of newspapers and oratory and the bloody draft riots in New York City. Furthermore, considerable coverage is given to suffering in the prisoner of war camps.
Although this is a history of politics, major battles are reported to make my report sufficiently comprehensive, but the emphasis is on the soldiers and sailors, not the generals. During four years of war, the Federal death toll climbs to 360,000, and the Confederate toll climbs to 260,000.
I also report the surprising and immensely important elevation to Vice-President of Andrew Johnson, an ex-Democrat Senator from Tennessee who had refused to support his State in the conflict.
After four years of remarkable defensive fighting, Richmond and Petersburg fall and Jefferson Davis flees southward with a remnant of the Confederate Government in a vain attempt to resume an organized defense. Abraham Lincoln personally inspects Richmond very soon after its capitulation, then returns to Washington, where he is assassinated by a Marylander a few days later.
Volume 3, The Bleeding, concludes with the imprisonment of Jefferson Davis at Fortress Monroe.