Even though both North and South were consumed with holding Kentucky during four tragic years of civil war, little has been written about the state's dramatic and pivotal role. Here, for the first time, many of the nation's leading Civil War scholars have joined forces to recapture the stunning drama and painful irony that defined the complex political and military efforts to seize and hold Kentucky. Battle for the Bluegrass discusses in sweeping detail the campaigns, battles and personalities of that epic struggle that literally defined the "War in the West" for the first two and one-half years of the war. Contributors include John Y. Simon, Wiley Sword, Charles Roland, James Ramage, and many other outstanding historians.