Cooper H. Wingert is a Civil War historian based in South Central Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Confederate Approach on Harrisburg and his work has also been published by Gettysburg Magazine. Richard J. Sommers, Ph.D. is the Senior Historian for the Army Heritage and Education Center at the Army War College. He is a past president of the Harrisburg Civil War Round Table, and he is the author of Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg" (Doubleday, 1981)."

This Civil War history examines the vital role played by the Pennsylvania capital and the many ways the conflict left its mark on the city and its people.

Answering President Lincoln's call for volunteers, men from across Pennsylvania swarmed Harrisburg to fight for the Union. The cityscape was transformed as soldiers camped on the lawn of the capitol, schools and churches were turned into hospitals and the local fairgrounds became the training facility of Camp Curtin. For four years, Harrisburg and its railroad hub served as a continuous facilitation site for thousands of Northern soldiers on their way to the front lines.

Its vital role in the Union war effort twice placed Harrisburg in the sights of the Confederates-most famously during the Gettysburg Campaign when Southern forces neared the city's outskirts. Though civilians kept an anxious eye to the opposite bank of the Susquehanna River, Harrisburg's defenses were never breached. In Harrisburg and the Civil War, Cooper H. Wingert crafts a portrait of a capital at war, from the political climate to the interactions among the citizens and the troops.