Love and War

A couple of days ago I finished reading John Jakes' novel Love and War. It is the second book of a trilogy that takes place during the Civil War and focuses on two families -- the Mains of South Carolina and the Hazards of Pennsylvania. The main character is arguably Charles Main, who serves in the Confederacy and sees some of the worst action of the war, including Antietam and the Wilderness. His cousins Cooper and Orry also serve the Confederate cause. Cooper travels to England to help design a warship, but his son is killed on the trip home while they try to run a Union blockade. Orry has a desk job until late in the war and is eventually killed by a wounded Yankee he tries to help. On the other side, Billy Hazard serves as an army engineer, is captured, thrown into Libby Prison, and ultimately escapes. His brother George also works for the North. This novel does a good job portraying all the different aspects of the war, and I enjoyed reading it (as expected). The final book of the series is Heaven and Hell, and I am in the middle of that one as I type this.