The Demon of Unrest is set during the critical months leading up to the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 until 1865. That war—between the Union (often called “the North”) and the Confederacy (“the South”)—killed the most Americans of any war in American history, leaving hundreds of thousands of soldiers dead and forever changing the trajectory of the United States. As Erik Larson’s text describes, the war began with the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor and ended symbolically with Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth just days after Lee’s surrender.

The internal nature of the American Civil War made it particularly destructive to the country in both the North and South. Instead of fighting a foreign power, this war pitted Americans against Americans, with many states, families, and individuals having to decide which side to support. Major Robert Anderson and Lee are both examples of the inner conflict permeating this time in American history. Anderson, born in Kentucky and a former enslaver, kept his loyalty to the United States. In doing so, he was forced to fight fellow Southerners.