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Sherman's March to the Sea; the Emancipation Proclamation; the Thirteenth Amendment; Lincoln's assassination; Reconstruction; and Andrew Johnson's impeachment.But more importantly, it offers a range of essays on how events could have turned out differently--militarily, politically, and culturally. It challenges students and general readers alike to remember that the course of history is not preordained. Instead, history is "made " in critical moments of decision by those who choose one course of action over another. Their choices--and the outcomes of those choices--could easily have been different.