Director Kent Masterson Brown explores the crucial events of the American Civil War west of the Appalachian Mountains from 1861 through the Confederate invasion of Kentucky in the fall of 1862. It covers the collapse of the Confederate defenses in Kentucky in the Winter of 1862, the Battle of Shiloh and the movement of General Braggs Confederate Army from Tupelo to Chattanooga. Kentucky was a border state of key importance in the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln recognized the importance of the Commonwealth when, in a September 1861 letter he wrote: “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.” The failure of the Confederacy to control Kentucky (even though it won a tactical victory at Perryville) was the first domino to fall in the inevitable collapse of the Southern Cause in the Western Theatre. Kent Masterson Brown brings all the action alive with detailed maps, description of the military leaders on both sides, and intricately interwoven live action from contemporary reenactments.