Best of
American-Civil-War

1997

Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend


James I. Robertson Jr. - 1997
    As Robertson notes in his preface to Stonewall Jackson, this study "is not a biography of a great general; it is the life of an extraordinary man who became a great general...The intent here is to see life as Jackson saw it, to hear his words, to read his thoughts, to walk beside him and know more than he knew at a given time and place".

Lincoln's Admiral: The Civil War Campaigns of David Farragut


James P. Duffy - 1997
    It shines a spotlight and shares new details about the admiral's leadership of the mission to recapture the port of New Orleans from the Confederacy - a campaign historians consider one of the most daring in military history.Farragut is perhaps best known for his order to “Damn the torpedoes.... Full speed ahead." during the Battle of Mobile Bay, which has become a touchstone and rallying cry for the United States Navy.A sweeping and riveting telling of Farragut's career and campaigns, Lincoln's Admiral offers fascinating insights into the strategy and decisions of one of the greatest military leaders on the Civil War - and of all time.

The Darkest Days of the War: The Battles of Iuka and Corinth


Peter Cozzens - 1997
    The outcome of this offensive--the only coordinated Confederate attempt to carry the conflict to the enemy--was disastrous. The results at Antietam and in Kentucky are well known; the third offensive, the northern Mississippi campaign, led to the devastating and little-studied defeats at Iuka and Corinth, defeats that would open the way for Grant's attack on Vicksburg. Peter Cozzens presents here the first book-length study of these two complex and vicious battles. Drawing on extensive primary research, he details the tactical stories of Iuka--where nearly one-third of those engaged fell--and Corinth--fought under brutally oppressive conditions--analyzing troop movements down to the regimental level. He also provides compelling portraits of Generals Grant, Rosecrans, Van Dorn, and Price, exposing the ways in which their clashing ambitions and antipathies affected the outcome of the campaign. Finally, he draws out the larger, strategic implications of the battles of Iuka and Corinth, exploring their impact on the fate of the northern Mississippi campaign, and by extension, the fate of the Confederacy.During the late summer of 1862, Confederate forces attempted a three-pronged strategic advance into the North. The outcome of this offensive--the only coordinated Confederate attempt to carry the conflict to the enemy--was disastrous. The results at Antietam and in Kentucky are well known; the third offensive, the northern Mississippi campaign, led to the devastating and little-studied defeats at Iuka and Corinth, defeats that would open the way for Grant's attack on Vicksburg. Peter Cozzens details the tactical stories of Iuka and Corinth, analyzing troop movements down to the regimental level and providing compelling portraits of Generals Grant, Rosecrans, Van Dorn, and Price. He also draws out the larger, strategic implications of the battles, exploring their impact on the fate of the northern Mississippi campaign, and by extension, the fate of the Confederacy.

Stonewall of the West: Patrick Cleburne and the Civil War


Craig L. Symonds - 1997
    Lee, he was a meteor shining from a clouded sky; and to Braxton Bragg, he was an officer ever alive to a success. He was Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, one of the greatest of all Confederate field commanders.An Irishman by birth, Cleburne emigrated to the United States in 1849 at the age of 21. He achieved only modest success in the peacetime South, but rose rapidly in the wartime army to become the Confederacy's finest division commander. He was admired by peers and subordinates alike for his leadership, loyalty, honesty, and fearlessness in the face of enemy fire. The valor of his command was so inspirational that his unit alone was allowed to carry its own distinctive battle flag.In Stonewall of the West, Craig Symonds offers the first full-scale critical biography of this compelling figure. He explores all the sources of Cleburne's commitment to the Southern cause, his growth as a combat leader from Shiloh to Chickamauga, and his emergence as one of the Confederacy's most effective field commanders at Missionary Ridge, Ringgold Gap, and Pickett's Mill. In addition, Symonds unravels the mystery of Spring Hill and recounts Cleburne's dramatic and untimely death (at the age of 36) at Franklin, Tennessee, where he charged the enemy line on foot after having two horses shot from under him.Symonds also explores Cleburne's role in the complicated personal politics of the Army of Tennessee, as well as his astonishing proposal that the decimated Confederate ranks be filled by ending slavery and arming blacks against the Union.Symonds' definitive and immensely readable narrative casts new light on Cleburne, on the Army of Tennessee, and on the Civil War in the West. It finally and firmly establishes Cleburne's rightful place in the pantheon of Southern military heroes.

The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays of Departing Hope


Chris E. Fonvielle Jr. - 1997
    It also features accounts of the defence of the Sugar Loaf Line and of the operations of Federal warships on the Cape Fear River.

For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War


James M. McPherson - 1997
    Wickham, commander of the famous 101st Airborne Division in the 1970s and subsequently Army Chief of Staff, once visited Antietam battlefield. Gazing at Bloody Lane where, in 1862, several Union assaults were brutally repulsed before they finally broke through, he marveled, You couldn't get American soldiers today to make an attack like that. Why did those men risk certain death, over and over again, through countless bloody battles and four long, awful years ? Why did the conventional wisdom -- that soldiers become increasingly cynical and disillusioned as warprogresses -- not hold true in the Civil War?It is to this question--why did they fight--that James McPherson, America's preeminent Civil War historian, now turns his attention. He shows that, contrary to what many scholars believe, the soldiers of the Civil War remained powerfully convinced of the ideals for which they fought throughout theconflict. Motivated by duty and honor, and often by religious faith, these men wrote frequently of their firm belief in the cause for which they fought: the principles of liberty, freedom, justice, and patriotism. Soldiers on both sides harkened back to the Founding Fathers, and the ideals of theAmerican Revolution. They fought to defend their country, either the Union--the best Government ever made--or the Confederate states, where their very homes and families were under siege. And they fought to defend their honor and manhood. I should not lik to go home with the name of a couhard, one Massachusetts private wrote, and another private from Ohio said, My wife would sooner hear of my death than my disgrace. Even after three years of bloody battles, more than half of the Union soldiers reenlisted voluntarily. While duty calls me here and my country demands my services I shouldbe willing to make the sacrifice, one man wrote to his protesting parents. And another soldier said simply, I still love my country.McPherson draws on more than 25,000 letters and nearly 250 private diaries from men on both sides. Civil War soldiers were among the most literate soldiers in history, and most of them wrote home frequently, as it was the only way for them to keep in touch with homes that many of them had left forthe first time in their lives. Significantly, their letters were also uncensored by military authorities, and are uniquely frank in their criticism and detailed in their reports of marches and battles, relations between officers and men, political debates, and morale. For Cause and Comrades letsthese soldiers tell their own stories in their own words to create an account that is both deeply moving and far truer than most books on war.Battle Cry of Freedom, McPherson's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times, called history writing of the highest order. For Cause and Comrades deserves similar accolades, as McPherson's masterful prose and the soldiers'own words combine to create both an important book on an often-overlooked aspect of our bloody Civil War, and a powerfully moving account of the men who fought it.

Smithsonian's Great Battles & Battlefields of the Civil War: A Definitive Field Guide Based on the Award-Winning Television Series by Mastervision


Jay Wertz - 1997
    Organized by state and cross-referenced chronologically so that readers can follow the different campaigns, the book explains the particular strategies behind troop movements and gives travel information for each battlefield, as well as for landmarks, historic buildings, and newly discovered and developing sites open to the public today. For the armchair historian or the avid sightseer, here are the stunning dramas that unfolded on the battlefields, with historical maps, photographs, and illustrations that bring the scenes to life.

The Civil War Letters of Joshua K. Callaway


Joshua K. Callaway - 1997
    Callaway took part in some of the most critical campaigns of the Civil War. His twice-weekly letters home, written between April 1862 and November 1863, chronicle his gradual change from an ardent Confederate soldier to a weary veteran who longs to be at home.Callaway was a schoolteacher, husband, and father of two when he enlisted in the 28th Alabama Infantry Regiment at the age of twenty-seven. Serving with the Army of the Tennessee, he campaigned in Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, and north Georgia. Along the way this perceptive observer and gifted writer wrote a continuous narrative detailing the activities, concerns, hopes, fears, discomforts, and pleasures of a Confederate soldier in the field.Whether writing about combat, illness, encampments, or homesickness, Callaway makes even the everyday aspects of soldiering interesting. This large collection, seventy-four letters in all, is a valuable historical reference that provides new insights into life behind the front lines of the Civil War.

The Battle Of Bentonville


Mark A. Moore - 1997
    27524Phone: (910) 594-0789Fax: (910) 594-0074Email: bentonville@ncdcr.gov

Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War


Maury Klein - 1997
    . . . Deserves a place in the highest ranks of Civil War scholarship."--The Cleveland Plain DealerIn November 1860, telegraph lines carried the news that Abraham Lincoln had been elected president. Over the next five months the United States drifted, stumbled, and finally plunged into the most destructive war this country has ever faced. With a masterful eye for telling detail, Maury Klein provides fascinating new insights into the period from the election of Abraham Lincoln to the shelling of Fort Sumter.Klein brings the key players in the tragedy unforgettably to life: from the vacillating lame-duck President Buchanan, to the taciturn, elusive, and relatively unknown Abraham Lincoln; from Secretary of State Seward carrying on his own private negotiations with the South, to Major Robert Anderson sitting in his island fortress awaiting reinforcements. Never has this immensely significant moment in our national story been so intelligently of so spellbindingly related.

Blue Lightning: Wilder's Mounted Infantry Brigade in the Battle of Chickamauga


Richard A. Baumgartner - 1997
    

The Civil War in Depth: History in 3-D


Bob Zeller - 1997
    Author Bob Zeller resurrects a fascinating aspect of Civil War photography that has, until now, been largely forgotten, assembling more than 150 of the most compelling views of the war -- some of them well known in their one-dimensional form; all of them remarkable windows on another time. Complete with a stereoscopic viewer that unveils each image in glorious 3-D, The Civil War in Depth offers scenes that come to life in a way no two-dimensional photograph ever could. The remarkable collection includes the first war action photograph ever taken -- the shelling of Fort Sumter in 1863 -- as well as more than a dozen Civil War images never published until now. From the stoic face of Abraham Lincoln to the slave pens, prisons, wrecked battlefields, and devastated cities of the South, the war between the states has never been revealed with such astonishing clarity.

The Battle History of the U.S. Marines: A Fellowship of Valor


Joseph H. Alexander - 1997
    Marines" is the only single-volume, definitive combat history of the United States Marines, covering more than two centuries of battles in the air and on land and sea--literally "from the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli," from Suribachi to Somalia. It presents graphic narratives of such epic engagements as Belleau Wood, Wake Island, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Saipan, Okinawa, the Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh, and many more. You will meet the Marine sharpshooters in the "fighting tops" of our young country's legendary frigates, as they took on the British navy during the American revolution; discover the exploits of Marine pilots in the "Banana Wars," in the skies over the Pacific during World War II, and later over Korea and Vietnam; and share the tension and terror of stalking the enemy on a Marine patrol in the jungles of the Pacific islands and Southeast Asia.An award-winning military historian and a retired Marine colonel, Joseph H. Alexander served two tours of duty in Vietnam. He tells the Marine combat story in a no-holds-barred narrative, with dozens of sidebars full of fascinating vignettes and Marine lore accompanied by nearly one hundred rare combat photographs and vivid sketches and numerous maps.

Civil War Fashions Coloring Book


Tom Tierney - 1997
    Officers in handsome military outfits, ladies in elegant daytime and evening dresses of rich taffeta, silk, percale and other fabrics, and children in apparel mirroring adult fashions. Adapted from pages of vintage fashion publications. Captions.

We Are in for It!: The First Battle of Kernstown March 23, 1862


Gary L. Ecelbarger - 1997
    "Stonewall" Jackson's legendary Shenandoah Valley Campaign. The Battle of Kernstown has been the least understood encounter of that famous spring in 1862 - until now. Gary Ecelbarger's new book brings to light the strategy, tactics, and personalities associated with March 23, 1862, by using hundreds of rare first-hand accounts from Kernstown soldiers. "We Are In For It!" demonstrates why one Civil War veteran considered the infantry fire at Kernstown to be "as heavy as it was at Antietam, Gettysburg, or the Wilderness."

The Battle of Carthage: Border War in Southwest Missouri, July 5, 1861


David C. Hinze - 1997
    The fight began with Federal officer Nathaniel Lyonís capture of the ammunition-packed St. Louis Arsenal. Gov. Claiborne F. Jackson unleashed the call for war and hastily formed militia units to defeat the Federals. In a bold campaign designed to destroy the vaunted state guard, Lyon and Federal Col. Franz Sigel launched a two-pronged attack. Ten miles north of the small town of Carthage, Jackson met Sigel and heavily outnumbered the Federal colonelís force. Sigel was forced to improvise a series of remarkable rearguard actions designed to save his supply wagons and his army. The Battle of Carthage is the first book devoted to this influential, early war battle. The book features detailed tactical coverage of the battle and in-depth biographical sketches, with critical evaluations of both sidesí major participants. The authorsí exhaustive battle analysis contains new interpretations of how and why the fighting evolved. This story of the battle of Carthage includes comprehensive original maps, photos and illustrations, a detailed discussion of casualties, explanatory endnotes, an order of battle, and an interview with coauthor David C. Hinze.

With Charity for All: Lincoln and the Restoration of the Union


William C. Harris - 1997
    With Charity for All offers a powerful argument for the continuity of Lincoln's generous approach to Reconstruction, and it provides a wealth of information showing how the president's mind worked. I only wish I had had this first-rate book before me when I was writing my Lincoln biography."""""""" --David Herbert Donald, Journal of American History Harris m

Fredericksburg


Time-Life Books - 1997
    Diaries, letters, journals, media reports and more. Beautifully and dramatically illustrated.

Vicksburg


Time-Life Books - 1997
    Diaries, letters, journals, media reports and more. Beautifully and dramatically illustrated.

Nine Months to Gettysburg: Stannard's Vermonters and the Repulse of Pickett's Charge


Howard Coffin - 1997
    The citizen soldiers of General George J. Stannard's Second Vermont Brigade, only a few days short of their nine-month enlistments, occupied a sector of Cemetery Ridge, helped stabilize the line, and then shattered the right flank of Pickett's famous charge just when the outcome of the battle hung in the balance.In this unique eye-witness account, Coffin draws on scores of soldiers' letters to relate how and why young recruits from isolated hill farms flocked to the Union colors in response to Lincoln's call in 1862. During the nine months leading up to their rendezvous with destiny at Gettysburg, they recorded, in humorous detail, foraging for food, and, in more sober terms, enduring homesickness, monotony, and often fatal diseases. We share, too, their anxieties as they are thrust suddenly into the most important infantry maneuver directed against the Confederate assault.

Rough And Regular: A History Of Philadelphia's 119th Regiment Of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry: The Gray Reserves


Larry B. Maier - 1997
    The 119th was involved in every major campaign fought by the Army of the Potomac, from Fredericksburg to Appomattox, as well as serving with the famed Phil Sheridan in the Shenandoah Campaign of 1864.

Lincoln's Abolitionist General: The Biography of David Hunter


Edward A. Miller - 1997
    It focuses on his race stance, his friendship with Lincoln, and his early advocacy of the hard war policies.

The Confederacy


Richard N. Current - 1997
    Organized in an easy-to-read A-to-Z format, this volume pieces together the integrated structure of the Confederacy. Politics, society, economics, culture, and the military - the role and relationship of each is described in colorful detail, bringing this fascinating period of nineteenth-century America to life. You will find articles about the history, battles, and government of the Confederacy along with battle maps and rare photographs. Discover vivid descriptions of life in the Southern states during the Civil War. "Stonewall, " "Red Dogs, " "Bleeding Kansas, " "Marse Robert, " "King Cotton, " "the Gray Ghost, " "Extra Billie, " and the "Fire Eaters."

The Robert E. Lee Family Cooking & Housekeeping Book


Anne Carter Zimmer - 1997
    Lee's personal notebook and presented by her great-granddaughter, this charming book is a treasury of recipes, remedies, and household history. Both the original and modern versions of 70 recipes are included.

Chickamauga


Time-Life Books - 1997
    Diaries, letters, journals, media reports and more. Beautifully and dramatically illustrated.