For example, two thirds of Americans--including most history teachers--think the Confederate States seceded for -states' rights.- This error persists because most have never read the key documents about the Confederacy.These documents have always been there. When South Carolina seceded, it published -Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union.- The document actually opposes states' rights. Its authors argue that Northern states were ignoring the rights of slave owners as identified by Congress and in the Constitution. Similarly, Mississippi's -Declaration of the Immediate Causes ...- says, -Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery--the greatest material interest of the world.-Later documents in this collection show how neo-Confederates obfuscated this truth, starting around 1890. The evidence also points to the centrality of race in neo-Confederate thought even today and to the continuing importance of neo-Confederate ideas in American political life. The 150th anniversary of secession and civil war provides a moment for all Americans to read these documents, properly set in context by award-winning sociologist and historian James W. Loewen and co-editor, Edward H. Sebesta, to put in perspective the mythology of the Old South.

    This work is a deeply researched examination of the recorded, practical effects of Freemasonry among Civil War participants on both sides. From first-person accounts culled from regimental histories, diaries, and letters, Michael A. Halleran has constructed an overview of 19th-century American freemasonry in general and Masonry in the armies of both North and South in particular, and provided telling examples of how Masonic brotherhood worked in practice. Halleran details the response of the fraternity to the crisis of secession and war, and examines acts of assistance to enemies on the battlefield and in POW camps. The author examines carefully the major Masonic stories from the Civil War, in particular the myth that Confederate Lewis A. Armistead made the Masonic sign of distress as he lay dying at the high-water mark of Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg.

    The Complete Civil War collects every article written about the war from 1861 to 1865, plus select pieces before and after the war and is filled with the action, politics, and personal stories of this monumental event. From the first shot fired at Fort Sumter to the surrender at Appomattox, and from the Battle of Antietam to the Battle of Atlanta, as well as articles on slavery, states rights, the role of women, and profiles of noted heroes such as Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, the era comes alive through these daily first-hand accounts. More than 600 of the most crucial and interesting articles in the book? Typeset and designed for easy reading Commentary by Editors and Civil War scholars Harold Holzer and Craig Symonds More than 104,000 additional articles on the DVD-ROM? every article the Times published during the war. A detailed chronology highlights articles and events of interest that can be found on the disk. Strikingly designed and illustrated with hundreds of maps, historical photographs, and engravings, this book is a treasure for Civil War and history buffs everywhere."This is a fascinating and riveting look at the most important event in American history as seen through the eyes of an institution that was emerging as the most important newspaper in American history.   In these pages, the Civil War seems new and fresh, unfolding day after anxious day, as the fate of the republic hangs in the balance." --  Ken Burns"Serious historians and casual readers alike will find this extraordinary collection of 600 articles and editorials about the Civil War published in The New York Times before and during the war of great value and interest . . . enough to keep the most assiduous student busy for the next four years of the war's sesquicentennial observations." --  James McPherson"This fascinating work catapults readers back in time, allowing us to live through the Civil War as daily readers of The New York Times, worrying about the outcome of battles, wondering about our generals, debating what to do about slavery, hearing the words that Lincoln spoke, feeling passionate about our politics.  Symonds and Holzer have found an ingenious new way to experience the most dramatic event in our nation's history." -- Doris Kearns Goodwin "Harold Holzer and Craig Symonds have included not only every pertinent article from the pages of The Times, but enhanced and illuminated them with editorial commentary that adds context and perspective, making the articles more informative and useful here than they were in the original issues.  Nowhere else can readers of today get such an understanding of how readers of 1861-1865 learned of and understood their war." -- William C Davis The DVD runs on Windows 2000/XP or Mac OS X 10.3 or later.

    Knight's Valley Thunder is the first full-length account in more than three decades to examine the combat at New Market on May 15, 1864, the battle that opened the pivotal Shenandoah Valley Campaign, a strategically important and agriculturally abundant region that helped feed Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

    Lincoln, Stonewall Jackson, Grant, and Lee still stand as heroic ideals, as stirring to our national memory as were the legendary Achilles and Hector to the world of the ancient Greeks.  In their bestselling, action-packed and painstakingly researched Civil War series, Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen examine some of the great “what-ifs” of American history: Could Lee have defeated the Union Army at Gettysburg and led the South to triumph in the war?  For the first time ever The Gettysburg Trilogy combines all three books in the Civil War Series.  Gettysburg, the series’ first installment, opens in 1863 as General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia are poised to attack the North and claim the victory that could end the brutal conflict.  The soldiers in the line, Yank and Reb, know that this will be the great challenge, the decisive moment that will decide whether a nation will die, or be created, and both sides are ready and willing to lay down their lives for their Cause.  Grant Comes East continues the story of a Confederate victory at Gettysburg, as General Lee marches on Washington, DC, and launches an assault against one of the largest fortifications in the world.  At the same time, Lincoln appoints General Ulysses S. Grant commander of all Union forces. Grant, fresh from his triumph at Vicksburg, races east, bringing with him his hardened veterans from Mississippi to confront Lee.  Finally, Never Call Retreat concludes this tour de force story of true heroism and glory in America’s most trying hour with an epic, week-long showdown between Grant and Lee as each man struggles to bring victory to his name, his men, and his country.Also included are excerpts from the first two books in Newt Gingrich and William F. Forstchen’s Revolutionary War Series: To Try Men’s Souls and Valley Forge.

    Marshall traces the development of a Confederate identity in Kentucky between 1865 and 1925, belying the fact that Kentucky never left the Union. After the Civil War, the people of Kentucky appeared to forget their Union loyalties and embraced the Democratic politics, racial violence, and Jim Crow laws associated with former Confederate states. Marshall looks beyond postwar political and economic factors to the longer-term commemorations of the Civil War by which Kentuckians fixed the state's remembrance of the conflict for the following sixty years.

    Where one half-Cherokee, orphaned girl grows up in the shadow of a mystery. Who killed her father, and what happened to the gold he mined from the Sautee Valley? And with whom does she belong, the adoptive farm family who raised her, or her white inn-keeper grandmother?Forced from the only life she's ever known and molded into her grandmother's idea of a proper young lady, Mahala Franklin finds life in Clarkesville lonely and full of challenges. But there are at least pieces of the puzzle of her past to be fit together, and relationships that will shape her future ... with Clay Fraser, her Cherokee friend who wants to be so much more, with wealthy entrepreneur and competitor Jack Randall, with whom Mahala doesn't dare to dream of more, and with Carolyn Calhoun, unwilling socialite caught between her feelings for two very different brothers.As the lives of the coastal "summer people" mingle with those of Habersham's natives, a tapestry of love, friendship and intrigue unfolds, a tapestry laced with a brilliant thread that will lure you through all four books of The Georgia Gold Series.

    Approximately eleven thousand Georgians were killed and the state suffered more than one hundred thousand in total casualties. Georgia was extremely influential in this nation’s most tragic conflict, and the war touched every corner of the state. Based on a comprehensive survey of sites identified by the Georgia Civil War Commission in 2000, Crossroads of Conflict covers 350 historic sites in detail, bringing the experience of the war to life. Written by Georgia Civil War Commission staff members Barry L. Brown and Gordon R. Elwell, this full-color edition of Crossroads of Conflict is an updated and significantly expanded version of the guide released by the state of Georgia in 1994. Crossroads of Conflict is arranged geographically, separating the state into nine distinct regions. Beginning in northeast Georgia, sites are followed west to east, north to south. Detailed maps of each region are supplemented by inset maps of urban areas. For each site, the guide provides a detailed history, driving directions, online resources, and GPS coordinates. Color photographs and period images document the locations, which include battlefields (major and minor), POW camps, hospitals, houses, buildings, bridges, cemeteries, and monuments. The war experiences of all Georgians, not just soldiers, are addressed within the guide’s informative text, and a detailed chronology is included.

    When Daniel Stuart finishes his Harvard freshman term in June 1862, he learns life at home isn't as fun as college. He squabbles with his brother Erik, rejects a future in law, and escapes to his garden. A pretty maid named Mary sympathizes, but his three school friends have 'got their skirts on fire' and dream of battlefield glory. Against his family's wishes, Daniel enlists as a private in the Civil War. Join Daniel and his friends - brash Andrew, scholar Matthew, and gentle David - as they train at Fort Ellsworth, fight at Second Bull Run, skirmish in Fredericksburg, and battle Confederates in Chancellorsville. This memoir-esque Civil War account is a gripping story of love, loss, sacrifice, and friendship. For Daniel can never return to his garden, but his friendships and his love for Mary are worth fighting for.

    Even in the midst of the war's shocking violence, the intensity of the prisoners' suffering and the brutal manner of their deaths provoked outrage, and both the Lincoln and Davis administrations manipulated the prison controversy to serve the exigencies of war. As both sides distributed propaganda designed to convince citizens of each section of the relative virtue of their own prison system--in contrast to the cruel inhumanity of the opponent--they etched hardened and divisive memories of the prison controversy into the American psyche, memories that would prove difficult to uproot. In Haunted by Atrocity, Benjamin G. Cloyd deftly analyzes how Americans have remembered the military prisons of the Civil War from the war itself to the present, making a strong case for the continued importance of the great conflict in contemporary America.Throughout Reconstruction and well into the twentieth century, Cloyd shows, competing sectional memories of the prisons prolonged the process of national reconciliation. Events such as the trial and execution of CSA Captain Henry Wirz--commander of the notorious Andersonville prison--along with political campaigns, the publication of prison memoirs, and even the construction of monuments to the prison dead all revived the painful accusations of deliberate cruelty. As northerners, white southerners, and African Americans contested the meaning of the war, these divisive memories tore at the scars of the conflict and ensured that the subject of Civil War prisons remained controversial.By the 1920s, the death of the Civil War generation removed much of the emotional connection to the war, and the devastation of the first two world wars provided new contexts in which to reassess the meaning of atrocity. As a result, Cloyd explains, a more objective opinion of Civil War prisons emerged--one that condemned both the Union and the Confederacy for their callous handling of captives while it deemed the mistreatment of prisoners an inevitable consequence of modern war. But, Cloyd argues, these seductive arguments also deflected a closer examination of the precise responsibility for the tragedy of Civil War prisons and allowed Americans to believe in a comforting but ahistorical memory of the controversy. Both the recasting of the town of Andersonville as a Civil War village in the 1970s and the 1998 opening of the National Prisoner of War Museum at Andersonville National Historic Site reveal the continued American preference for myth over history--a preference, Cloyd asserts, that inhibits a candid assessment of the evils committed during the Civil War.The first study of Civil War memory to focus exclusively on the military prison camps, Haunted by Atrocity offers a cautionary tale of how Americans, for generations, have unconsciously constructed their recollections of painful events in ways that protect cherished ideals of myth, meaning, identity, and, ultimately, a deeply rooted faith in American exceptionalism.

    Ulysses S. Grant, Wallace's commander at Shiloh, attributed Wallace's late arrival to the battle to a failure to obey orders. Shiloh still defines Wallace's military reputation, overshadowing the rest of his stellar military career. Wallace was devoted to the Union, but he was also pursuing glory, fame, and honor when he volunteered to serve in April 1861. Author Stephens specifically addresses Wallace's military career and its place in the larger context of Civil War military history.

    A few served together in Jewish companies while most fought alongside Christian comrades. Yet even as they stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" on the front lines, they encountered unique challenges.In Jews and the Civil War, Jonathan D. Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn assemble for the first time the foremost scholarship on Jews and the Civil War, little known even to specialists in the field. These accessible and far-ranging essays from top scholars are grouped into seven thematic sections--Jews and Slavery, Jews and Abolition, Rabbis and the March to War, Jewish Soldiers during the Civil War, The Home Front, Jews as a Class, and Aftermath--each with an introduction by the editors. Together they reappraise the impact of the war on Jews in the North and the South, offering a rich and fascinating portrait of the experience of Jewish soldiers and civilians from the home front to the battle front.

    They were German immigrants fighting in a German regiment. Imbued with democratic and egalitarian ideals, the pair were disappointed with the imperfections they found in America and its political, social, and economic fabric; they also disdained puritanical temperance and Sunday laws restricting the personal freedoms they had enjoyed in Europe. Both men believed Germans were superior to Americans and other ethnic soldiers and hoped to elevate the status of Germans in American society by demonstrating their willingness to join in the fight and preserve the Union at the risk of their own lives.Bertsch's and Stangel's letters from the battlefront were published in German American newspapers and are historically significant for several reasons: they are among the very rare collections of letters from soldiers in a German regiment; they fill a significant void of letters from Union fighting men describing the events in the rugged mountains and valleys of western Virginia during the North's first campaign and subsequent service in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama; they provide a useful account of how the two German Americans viewed the war, American officers and enlisted men, other immigrant soldiers, and the enemy; they shed light on the ethnic dimensions of the war, especially ethnic identity, pride, and solidarity; and they reflect the overarching political climate in which the war was fought. Additionally, these contemporary letters are superior to accounts written years or decades after the events occurred.A German Hurrah! makes Bertsch's and Stangel's letters available in English for the first time. It is a valuable addition to Civil War studies and will be welcomed by those interested in ethnicity and immigration.

    as a laboratory for social policy in the era of emancipation and the Civil War. In this panoramic study, Kate Masur provides a nuanced account of African Americans' grassroots activism, municipal politics, and the U.S. Congress. She tells the provocative story of how black men's right to vote transformed local affairs, and how, in short order, city reformers made that right virtually meaningless. Bringing the question of equality to the forefront of Reconstruction scholarship, this widely praised study explores how concerns about public and private space, civilization, and dependency informed the period's debate over rights and citizenship.

    “Gus” McClendon’s memoir of his service in the 15th Alabama Infantry. It has long been recognized among the rarest books by any veteran of the Army of Northern Virginia.Keith Bohannon has conducted relentless research that uncovered a gratifying array of new information about McClendon, as well as new photographs. The introduction based on that research might be a model for the genre, full of details acquired from arcane sources that throw new light on the subject. Bohannon's new exhaustive index also makes McClendon's memoir notably more accessible. "Gus" McClendon joined the 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment, and served in many of the Eastern Theater engagements. More than fifty years later, he sent down his reminiscences, still an unreconstructed Southern patriot, although able to look back with some amusement on his younger self.

    Gen. Peter Osterhaus served from the first clash in the western theater until the final surrender of the war. Osterhaus made a name for himself within the army as an energetic and resourceful commander who led his men from the front. He was one of the last surviving Union major general and military governor of Mississippi in the early days of Reconstruction.This first full-length study of the officer documents how, despite his meteoric military career, his accomplishments were underreported even in his own day and often misrepresented in the historical record. Mary Bobbitt Townsend corrects previous errors about his life and offers new insights into his contributions to major turning points in the war at Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, as well as other battles.Townsend draws on battle reports not found in the Official Records, on personal papers, and on other nonpublished material to examine Osterhaus’s part in the major battles in the West as well as in minor engagements. She tells how he came into his own in the Vicksburg campaign and proved himself through skill with artillery, expertise in intelligence gathering, and taking the lead in hostile territory—blazing the trail down the west side of the river for the entire Union army and then covering Grant’s back for a month during the siege. At Chattanooga, Osterhaus helped Joe Hooker strategize the rout at Lookout Mountain; at Atlanta, he led the Fifteenth Corps, the largest of the four corps making Sherman's March to the Sea. Townsend also documents his contributions in the battles of Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, Arkansas Post, Port Gibson, Ringgold Gap, and Resaca and shows that he played a crucial role in Canby’s Mobile Bay operations at the end of the war.In addition to reporting Osterhaus’s wartime experiences, Townsend describes his experiences as a leader in the 1848–1849 Rebellion in his native Germany, his frustration during his term as Mississippi’s governor, and his stint as U.S. consul to France during the Franco-Prussian War.Osterhaus stood out from other volunteer officers in his understanding of tactics and logistics, even though his careful field preparation led to criticism by historians that he was unduly cautious in battle. Yankee Warhorse sets the record straight on this important Civil War general as it opens a new window on the war in the West.

    This volume offers the ?rst complete account of this battle, examining and recounting in depth not only the composition and actions of the contending forces, which numbered some three thousand men on each side, but meticulously detailing the effect of the engagement on the city of Columbus and its environs.   Misulia’s study ?lls in an omission in the grand account of our cataclysmic national struggle and adds a signi?cant chapter to the history of an important regional city. In addition, Misulia takes on the long-vexing question of which encounter should be recognized as the last battle of the Civil War and argues persuasively that Columbus, Georgia, quali?es for this distinction on a number of counts.

    This book describes the role that Texas and Texans played in the greatest conflict on American soil. Graphic organizers aid readers in understanding this incredibly interesting and tumultuous era.

    David Ireland’s regiment was extraordinary. His 137th New York State Volunteers fought crucial battles in both theaters of the Civil War. In the East, they were in the center of the line at Chancellorsville, alone on the right at Gettysburg. In the West, they held the left at Wauhatchie and led the charge at Lookout Mountain. In 1864 as part of Sherman’s army, they fought in all the battles leading to the taking of Atlanta, the March to the Sea, and the march thru the Carolinas that finally ended the Civil War. Twice they held the unsupported flank of the line. Twice they fought for hours, after dark – a rarity in the Civil War. Arguably, they saved the Battle of Gettysburg by holding Culp’s Hill on the night of July 2, one regiment against six. Shifted to the Western Theater, they saved Geary’s Division from annihilation in the midnight Battle of Wauhatchie, holding the line though again greatly outnumbered. Stalwart in defense, they were bold in offense. The 137th NY was “the point of the sword” routing the Confederate defenders of Lookout Mountain in the “Battle Above the Clouds” at Chattanooga. With Sherman in Georgia, they contributed to the saving of the Union itself. They were the first troops into Atlanta, a victory that insured Lincoln’s re-election. They were first to take the surrender of Savannah, which Sherman gave to Lincoln as a Christmas gift. After Lee had surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, the 137th NY fought on for another two weeks in Carolina until Johnston’s Confederate army surrendered, ending the Civil War. Of the thousand Union regiments in the Civil War, few if any could claim such distinction, in so many crucial battles, in so many places. Yet history’s indifference has long denied Col. David Ireland and the 137th New York the recognition and praise that they deserve. David Ireland died days after taking Atlanta, so never wrote a memoir telling the regiment’s story. Pieces of the story are told in the writings of more than thirty men of the 137th NY, their commanders and opponents, that provide a first-hand view of the regiment’s 15 battles and 2000 miles of hard-marching. Taken together, the pieces yield a comprehensive history of their regiment, on their “fields of fame and glory”. This is the story of ordinary men, who under the leadership of a remarkable commander, Col. David Ireland, became an extraordinary regiment – the 137th New York State Volunteers. The author hopes this will at last bring them fame – the regiment long ago earned the glory. The book includes 40 maps and images of men of the 137th NY, and a comprehensive index of men of the regiment and locations referred to in the text."

    The region became a magnet for both Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War, and nearly half of the thirteen major battles fought in the valley occurred as part of General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's 1862 Valley Campaign. Civil War historian Jonathan A. Noyalas examines Jackson's Valley Campaign and how those victories brought hope to an infant Confederate nation, transformed the lives of the Shenandoah Valley's civilians and emerged as Stonewall Jackson's defining moment.

    During the Civil War, the river also served as a vital artery for moving troops and supplies. In 1863 the battle to wrest control of the valley was, in effect, a battle for the state itself. In spite of its importance, however, this campaign is often overshadowed by the siege of Vicksburg. Now Mark K. Christ offers the first detailed military assessment of parallel events in Arkansas, describing their consequences for both Union and Confederate powers.Christ analyzes the campaign from military and political perspectives to show how events in 1863 affected the war on a larger scale. His lively narrative incorporates eyewitness accounts to tell how new Union strategy in the Trans-Mississippi theater enabled the capture of Little Rock, taking the state out of Confederate control for the rest of the war. He draws on rarely used primary sources to describe key engagements at the tactical level—particularly the battles at Arkansas Post, Helena, and Pine Bluff, which cumulatively marked a major turning point in the Trans-Mississippi.In addition to soldiers’ letters and diaries, Christ weaves civilian voices into the story—especially those of women who had to deal with their altered fortunes—and so fleshes out the human dimensions of the struggle. Extensively researched and compellingly told, Christ’s account demonstrates the war’s impact on Arkansas and fills a void in Civil War studies.

    history class, you've heard of Pickett's Charge. If you've seen the movie Gettysburg, you're familiar with Little Round Top. If you've been to the battlefield, you've seen the Wheatfield. But do you know about the ten or so Confederates buried by accident in Gettysburg National Cemetery? Or about the Union general whose embezzling ways kept his bust from being displayed on his brigade's memorial? Or how that same embezzling general, when asked why he had no monument at Gettysburg, could rightly reply, "Why, hell, the whole battlefield is my monument"? Authors James and Suzanne Gindlesperger have visited Gettysburg an average of five times annually over the past twenty years. So You Think You Know Gettysburg? shows why they find it a place not only of horrible carnage and remarkable bravery but endless fascination. Who, or what, was Penelope? Whose dog is depicted on the Eleventh Pennsylvania Monument, and why? What are the Curious Rocks? Why does Gettysburg have two markers for the battle's first shot, and why are they in different locations? The plentiful maps, the nearly 200 site descriptions, and the 270-plus color photos in So You Think You Know Gettysburg? will answer questions you didn't even know you had about America's greatest battlefield.James and Suzanne Gindlesperger are the authors of So You Think You Know Gettysburg?, which was the bronze winner in the travel guide category for ForeWord Reviews' Book of the Year Award in 2010. James is a "Friend of the Field" at Gettysburg and the author of three books about the Civil War: Escape from Libby Prison, Seed Corn of the Confederacy, and Fire on the Water. Suzanne is the cofounder of Pennwriters, a professional organization of published and aspiring authors. The couple lives in Johnstown, Pennsylvania."This is not a book that fits into one slot easily. This is a book wearing many hats . . . defying a quick or easy description. Part guidebook, part trivia quiz, and part history with a series of fine color photos . . . a well-organized, very attractive, fun book . . . " -- James Durney, TOCWOC, A Civil War Blog

    Lee faced the most monumental crisis of his military career on the morning of April 2, 1865. By sunrise that morning, the Union 6th Corps had punched a huge hole in Lee’s outer line, southwest of Petersburg. He needed time for reinforcements to arrive from Richmond, but how could his depleted army buy that time? Amidst overwhelming odds, this suicide mission fell to a handful of Confederates who made a desperate last stand at Fort Gregg. Douglas Southall Freeman called this epic fight “one of the most dramatic incidents of an overwhelming day,” and yet it has been overshadowed by all the other historic events of April 1865. Fourteen Union soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their bravery at Fort Gregg. Many battle-scarred veterans from both sides described this clash as the nastiest of their four-year war experience.