September 1862. After a string of victories in Virginia, Robert E. Lee marches his Army of Northern Virginia northward across the Potomac River in search of one final battlefield triumph as the best way to bring about Southern independence. Little goes right for Lee when the garrison at Harpers Ferry refuses to evacuate and a lost order reveals his plans to George McClellan and his resurgent Army of the Potomac. The result is a divided Southern army severely weakened by straggling, a failed effort to hold the gaps through South Mountain, and a final stand at Sharpsburg on September 17 (the bloodiest day in American history) with the Potomac River and a single ford at Lee’s back. Alexander Rossino weaves these momentous hours together brilliantly in Six Days in September. Readers live the high-stakes drama through the gritty minutiae experienced by a host of historical characters—including an injured and exhausted General Lee, the pious hard-fighting Stonewall Jackson, a frustrated but reliable James Longstreet, the acerbic Harvey Hill, and the irrepressible Kyd Douglas. Rossino also displays a keen understanding of daily travails undergone by the common foot soldiers, and the unique hardships Sharpsburg’s civilians lived through when two major armies decided to wage war around their sleepy Maryland village. Six Days in September is a sweeping account, brilliantly written with a “you-are-there” sense that will linger long after you finish this book. This review appeared on the Reader's Favorite website:"I love books about the American Civil War, whether they are fact or fiction. Other wars have been bigger, but none have been more important to American history. I am an African-American so this war was particularly important to myself and my family. I am also from Alabama, so I am a little fascinated by the Confederate side too. I'm not sure why I feel this way, but I do. I think Robert E. Lee is one of the greatest generals in American history. That's saying a lot because he had generals like Stonewall Jackson and JEB Stuart under his command. Six Days in September is A Novel of Lee's Army in Maryland by Alexander B. Rossino. It hit my Civil War sweet spot. It tells the story of the time Lee went looking for a victory outside of the Confederacy. This resulted in the battles of Antietam and South Mountain. These are some of the bloodiest days in American history. Let me tell you the number one reason that I like Six Days in September so much. It is a novel, a very well written novel. But it feels like history when you read it. It feels like a very well researched and detailed history. When you combine these two facts, what you come up with is a great reading experience. The writing is brilliant. The characters are right out of the history books and, in the end, these characters wrote this plot. Alexander B. Rossino just took the time to tell their story. He did a great job." -- Ray Simmons Award-winning author and historian Alexander B. Rossino is a resident of Boonsboro, Maryland. He is the author of Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity, an acclaimed history of the racial-political policies implemented by the Third Reich during its 1939 invasion of the Polish Republic. He worked at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum from 1994 to 2003 and is the author of nearly a dozen scholarly articles and book reviews. His interest in the American Civil War dates from childhood and he long wished to write a book on it that transcended the rigid boundaries of academic history. Six Days in September represents that combination of interest and desire.