2012 Audie Award Winner, History. An epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefield, this account of how the Civil War began and a second American revolution unfolded introduces us to a heretofore little-known cast of Civil War heroes.Among them, an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer's wife, an idealistic band of German immigrants, a regiment of New York City firemen, and a young college professor who would one day become President.