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Jay Winik’s April 1865: The Month that Saved America is a well-researched and well-written book about the last month of the American Civil War. This is a book that should not be missed by anyone who enjoys reading about history.

The author seems to be one of those rare writers who can convey both small details and overviews equally well. The small details create the important element of time and place to the story. It’s the weather, the typical social calendar of the upper crust of Richmond society, typical church services, what the opposing sides yelled at each other, the letters between Grant and Lee. He obviously did exhaustive research in order to present this month in such a way that the reader can experience it.

Winik also gives well-written and thoughtful sketches of the main players. I took particular delight in the people that are usually not focused on when discussing the Civil War: Vice President Johnson being a stand-out case. Winik takes the time to go over how a sitting presidential death has been handled before, from the Constitutional thinking to the actual practice. That sort of attention to detail and background is important, and it’s nice to see an author that respects that. Of course, having such a colorful story to tell in Johnson’s ascension to power is an extra gift from the historical gods. Another interesting person who is often overlooked is Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest.

The book covers some of the most engrossing scenes of American history: the fall of Richmond, the surrender at Appomattox, Abraham Lincoln’s visit to Richmond, Lincoln’s death (although the last was less informative than I anticipated, but I’ve also read a book that focused just on the last day of Lincoln’s life, so there would be no way to make Winik’s version as detailed).

There were many historical facts that I was not aware of (and I’m definitely a new person to the American Civil War story). I didn’t know about Davis’s continued calls for the beginning of guerilla warfare. The idea that this was a feasible worry at the time was something that often becomes lost when history rolls on and those possibilities are closed. I didn’t know that the South had been debating emancipating the slaves in a last minute effort to hold off defeat. I didn’t know the details of Lee’s armies last days before the actual surrender.

I know there’s been criticism about Winik putting in too much information that might be considered somewhat unconnected to the actual story. (The most criticized would probably be the part at the beginning of the book about Thomas Jefferson.) However, with a book as good as this, I don’t understand the impulse to find anything extra a bad thing.