April 1865

#1 New York Times Bestseller: A modern classic of American history that "vividly re-creates the last days of the Civil War . . . fascinating" (The Washington Post).

One month in 1865 witnessed the frenzied fall of Richmond, a daring last-ditch Southern plan for guerrilla warfare, Lee's harrowing retreat, and then, Appomattox. It saw Lincoln's assassination just five days later and a near-successful plot to decapitate the Union government, followed by chaos and coup fears in the North, collapsed negotiations and continued bloodshed in the South, and finally, the start of national reconciliation.


In the end, April 1865 emerged as not just the tale of the war's denouement, but the story of the making of our nation.


Jay Winik offers a look at the Civil War's final days that will forever change the way we see the war's end and the nation's new beginning. Uniquely set within the larger sweep of history and filled with rich profiles of outsize figures, fresh iconoclastic scholarship, and a gripping narrative, this is a "brilliant" account (The New York Times) of the thirty most pivotal days in the life of the United States.


"There probably never was a month so full of peril, so packed with action, so freighted with significance as April 1865." —The Boston Globe

"Superb . . . a master storyteller with a remarkable tale to tell—full of tragedy, treachery, ambition, nobility, defiance, and courage." —Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times–bestselling author of Team of Rivals

"These events have been the subject of countless books over the past century . . . Winik has said it better than all his predecessors." —Richmond Times-Dispatch