G. A. Henty 
With Lee in Virginia [EPUB ebook] 

The Great War between the Northern and Southern States of
America possesses a peculiar interest to us, not only because it was a
struggle between two sections of a people akin to us in race and
language, but because of the heroic courage with which the weaker
party, with ill-fed, ill-clad, ill-equipped regiments, for four years
sustained the contest with an adversary not only possessed of
immense numerical superiority, but having the command of the sea,
and being able to draw its arms and munitions of war from all the
manufactories of Europe. Authorities still differ as to the rights of the
case. The Confederates firmly believed that the States, having
voluntarily united, retained the right of withdrawing from the Union
when they considered it for their advantage to do so. The
Northerners took the opposite point of view, and an appeal to arms
became inevitable.