The civil war in North America between 1861 and 1865 cost around three quarters of a million lives. But the war's significance doesn't just lie in the scale of the it is the great American story. For Americans, in the words of historian Shelby Foote, it was the 'crossroads of our being'. Whether the issue is the continuing struggle for racial equality, the scope of government, the place of violence in American life or the potential for war to achieve noble ends, the paths the US has taken since the civil war can be traced back to those brutal battles 150 years ago.