"Among the towering figures of the Civil War, none is more enigmatic than General William Tecumseh Sherman. Widely denounced as fiendishly destructive and even insane for his infamous March to the Sea across Georgia, Sherman was a brilliant commander and strategist who helped bring the bloody war to a swifter and surer end. Yet he left a legacy of "total war" against unarmed civilians and their property which has haunted military leaders and all Americans...

A stubborn man of deep principles, Andrew Jackson always reacted violently to what he saw as political or social injustice. The rumors surrounding the timing of his marriage, which had devastating effects on his wife Rachel - she died after the election and before his inauguration - drove him to distraction. But nothing tested Jackson's resolve - and eventually his presidency - quite so much as the scandals surrounding Margaret "Peggy" Eaton, the...