James M. McPherson is a military historian and author of several books, including Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, the winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for History and New York Times bestseller. He is the author of Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, Crossroads of Freedom, What They Fought For, 1861-1865, and many other books on the Civil War. He is Edwards Professor of American History at Princeton University.