Guelzo shows us the face, the sights and sounds of nineteenth-century combat: the stone walls and gunpowder clouds of Pickett's Charge; the reason that the Army of Northern Virginia could be smelled before it could be seen; the march of thousands of men from the banks of the Rappahannock in Virginia to the Pennsylvania hills. What emerges is a previously untold story: from the personal politics roiling the Union and Confederate officer ranks, to the peculiar character of artillery units. Through such scrutiny the cornerstone battle of the Civil War is given extraordinarily vivid new life.

    From his legendary bayonet charge down the slopes of Little Round Top hill during the Battle of Gettysburg, to the startling calling of Union troops to salute as the defeated Confederate Army surrendered to him at Appomattox, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain redefined the scale of greatness in this country. Wounded six times in battle, twice assumed to be a fatality, the volunteer officer from Maine continued to lead gallantly until the final shot was fired during the Civil War. Valor's Measure tells the death-defying tale of this Medal of Honor hero and captures his spirit as no autobiography can.

    Ideal for carrying on trips through the park as well as for the armchair historian, this book includes comprehensive maps and deft descriptions of the action that situate visitors in time and place. Crisp narratives introduce key figures and events, and eye-opening vignettes help readers more fully comprehend the import of what happened and why. A wide variety of contemporary and postwar source materials offer colorful stories and present interesting interpretations that have shaped--or reshaped--our understanding of Gettysburg today.Each stop addresses the following: What happened here? Who fought here? Who commanded here? Who fell here? Who lived here? How did participants remember this event?

    Told through the words of the people who lived it, The Fall of the House of Dixie illuminates the way a war undertaken to preserve the status quo became a second American Revolution whose impact on the country was as strong and lasting as that of our first.   In 1860 the American South was a vast, wealthy, imposing region where a small minority had amassed great political power and enormous fortunes through a system of forced labor. The South’s large population of slaveless whites almost universally supported the basic interests of plantation owners, despite the huge wealth gap that separated them. By the end of 1865 these structures of wealth and power had been shattered. Millions of black people had gained their freedom, many poorer whites had ceased following their wealthy neighbors, and plantation owners were brought to their knees, losing not only their slaves but their political power, their worldview, their very way of life. This sea change was felt nationwide, as the balance of power in Congress, the judiciary, and the presidency shifted dramatically and lastingly toward the North, and the country embarked on a course toward equal rights.   Levine captures the many-sided human drama of this story using a huge trove of diaries, letters, newspaper articles, government documents, and more. In The Fall of the House of Dixie, the true stakes of the Civil War become clearer than ever before, as slaves battle for their freedom in the face of brutal reprisals; Abraham Lincoln and his party turn what began as a limited war for the Union into a crusade against slavery by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation; poor southern whites grow increasingly disillusioned with fighting what they have come to see as the plantation owners’ war; and the slave owners grow ever more desperate as their beloved social order is destroyed, not just by the Union Army, but also from within. When the smoke clears, not only Dixie but all of American society is changed forever.   Brilliantly argued and engrossing, The Fall of the House of Dixie is a sweeping account of the destruction of the old South during the Civil War, offering a fresh perspective on the most colossal struggle in our history and the new world it brought into being.Praise for The Fall of the House of Dixie   “This is the Civil War as it is seldom seen. . . . A portrait of a country in transition . . . as vivid as any that has been written.”—The Boston Globe  “An absorbing social history . . . For readers whose Civil War bibliography runs to standard works by Bruce Catton and James McPherson, [Bruce] Levine’s book offers fresh insights.”—The Wall Street Journal  “More poignantly than any book before, The Fall of the House of Dixie shows how deeply intertwined the Confederacy was with slavery, and how the destruction of both made possible a ‘second American revolution’ as far-reaching as the first.”—David W. Blight, author of American Oracle  “Splendidly colorful . . . Levine recounts this tale of Southern institutional rot with the ease and authority born of decades of study.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)   “A deep, rich, and complex analysis of the period surrounding and including the American Civil War.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

    This book does a great deal to redress that historical injustice. Tom Huntington has invented a new genre of biography that shifts between past and present as he tells the story of Meade's life and describes his own pilgrimage to the key sites of that life. The result is an engrossing narrative that the reader can scarcely put down." - James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Battle Cry of Freedom""Searching for George Gordon Meade is a splendid book! Well-researched, well-reasoned, and well-written, it's a timely and vital addition to the all-too-meager literature on this neglected American hero. Strongly recommended for serious historians as well as for a general readership. Excellent!" - Ralph Peters, author of "Cain at Gettysburg""Much more than another Civil War biography, Tom Huntington's gripping personal 'search' for George Gordon Meade is unique and irresistible: a combination life story, military history, travelogue, and cultural commentary that brings us closer than ever to the old general and his strange reputation--and also opens new windows to our own unending search for an understandable national identity." - Harold Holzer, author and Chairman of Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial FoundationA historian's investigation of the life and times of Gen. George Gordon Meade to discover why the hero of Gettysburg has failed to achieve the status accorded to other generals of the conflict. Covers Meade's career from his part in the Mexican-American War through his participation in the great Civil War engagements, including Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Petersburg. Available for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Explores Meade's legacy today at reenactments, battlefields, museums, and institutions that preserve history.

    If the “War Between the States” was the test of the young republic’s commitment to its founding precepts, it was also a watershed in photographic history, as the camera recorded the epic, heartbreaking narrative from beginning to end—providing those on the home front, for the first time, with immediate visual access to the horrors of the battlefield.Photography and the American Civil War features both familiar and rarely seen images that include haunting battlefield landscapes strewn with bodies, studio portraits of armed Confederate and Union soldiers (sometimes in the same family) preparing to meet their destiny, rare multi-panel panoramas of Gettysburg and Richmond, languorous camp scenes showing exhausted troops in repose, diagnostic medical studies of wounded soldiers who survived the war’s last bloody battles, and portraits of both Abraham Lincoln and his assassin, John Wilkes Booth.Published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg (1863), this beautifully produced book features Civil War photographs by George Barnard, Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O’Sullivan, and many others.

    When the southern states secede, the twins are separated, and they find themselves on opposite sides of America’s bloodiest war.In the south, Maggie travels with the Hamiltons to Bellevue, a plantation in west Tennessee. When Major Hamilton is captured, it is up to Maggie to hold things together and deal with the Union cavalry troop that winters at Bellevue. Racism, politics and a matchmaking stepmother test Maggie’s resourcefulness as she fights for Bellevue, a wounded Confederate officer and the affections of the Union commander.In the north, Matty discovers an incriminating letter in General Worthington’s office, and soon she is on the run. With no one to turn to for help, she drugs the wealthy Colonel Cole Black and marries him, in hopes of getting the letter to his father, the governor of Michigan. But Cole is not happy about being married, and Matty’s life becomes all about survival. Two unforgettable stories of courage, strength and honor. **Contains 2 novellas.Editorial Reviews:"Maggie and Matty Becker will enchant you as they struggle for respect, survival, and love in the Civil War’s troubled time. You’ll sigh with pleasure as you finish each story." —Caroline Clemmons, author of Bluebonnet Bride"Two very talented authors, Alison Bruce and Kat Flannery, teamed up to write Hazardous Union; Two Tales of a Civil War Christmas. It is the story of twin sisters, Matty and Maggie Becker who are separated at the beginning of the Civil War….One major thing ties them to each other—their upbringing by loving and wise parents. As their stories unfold, they are both able to make a difference in the lives of the people they hold dear. They each solve a different mystery and, at the same time, fall in love. They also witness a form of racism within each of the families, reflecting the mores of the north and the south. The characters and the times are well depicted in this short novel. I highly recommend this novel to Civil War enthusiasts and readers who enjoy a well-written historical romance. If you like intrigue, mystery and romance, this book is for you. It will hold your attention and is a quick read that you won’t be able to put down." —Katherine Boyer, Tear a Page Blog"Double your reading pleasure with twin passions—two novellas featuring twins Maggie and Matty, and heroes who’ll steal your heart. Alison Bruce and Kat Flannery penned stories that play on your senses like a sonata. A must read!" —Jacquie Rogers, award-winning author of Much Ado About Madams"Hazardous Unions are twin stories about the adventures of two sisters during the Civil War and the dilemmas they get themselves into. Maggie's story, written by Alison Bruce, tells the tale of a Northern young woman who accepts a job as housekeeper to a Southern family…A wonderfully entertaining and well written novella, with engaging characters and appropriate language for the era. Ms. Bruce knows her history. I will be eager to read more of her work. Mattie, by Kat Flannery, is equally delightful. Unlike her sister, Mattie stays in the North working for a Union General…Even in the midst of war and danger and death, love will have its way, as it does with Maggie and Matty." —Charlene Raddon, author of To Have and to Hold

    They would assault it again with a very different result the following spring when General Joe Hooker, bogged down in bloody battle with the Army of Northern Virginia around the crossroads of Chancellorsville, ordered John Sedgwick s Sixth Corps to assault the heights and move to his assistance. This time the Union troops wrested the wall and high ground from the Confederates and drove west into the enemy s rear. The inland drive stalled in heavy fighting at Salem Church. Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church, May 3, 1863 is the first book-length study of these overlooked engagements and the central roles they played in the final Southern victory.Once Hooker opened the campaign with a brilliant march around General Lee s left flank, the Confederate commander violated military principles by dividing his under-strength army in the face of superior numbers. He shuttled most of his men west from around Fredericksburg under Stonewall Jackson to meet Hooker in the tangles of the Wilderness, leaving behind a small portion to watch Sedgwick s Sixth Corps. Jackson s devastating attack against Hooker s exposed right flank on May 2, however, convinced the Union army commander to order Sedgwick s large, unused corps to break through and march against Lee s rear. From that point on, Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front tightens the lens for a thorough examination of the decision-making, movements, and fighting that led to the breakthrough, inland thrust, and ultimate bloody stalemate at Salem Church.Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have long appreciated the pivotal roles Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church played in the campaign, and just how close the Southern army came to grief and the Union army to stunning success. Together they seamlessly weave their extensive newspaper, archival, and firsthand research into a compelling narrative to better understand these combats, which usually garner little more than a footnote to the larger story of Jackson s march and tragic fatal wounding.The success at Second Fredericksburg was one of the Union army s few bright spots in the campaign, while the setback at Salem Church stands as its most devastating lost opportunity. Instead of being trapped between the Sixth Corps hammer and Fighting Joe Hooker s anvil, Lee overcame long odds to achieve what is widely recognized as his greatest victory. But Lee s triumph played out as it did because of the pivotal events at Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church Chancellorsville s forgotten front where Union soldiers once more faced the horror of an indomitable wall of stone, and an undersized Confederate division stood up to a Union juggernaut.REVIEWS Too often historians have treated the battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church as mere footnotes to the greater Chancellorsville campaign. In Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front, Mackowski and White bring the story to the forefront where it belongs, and they do so in a style at once entertaining and evocative. Donald Pfanz, award-winning author of Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier s Life Mackowski s and White s Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front is not just a micro-study of a small portion of a large campaign, but a study of the campaign from the perspective of overlooked battles. Anyone who thinks Second Fredericksburg, Salem Church, and Banks Ford were insignificant engagements are about to discover that the Federals who fought and died in these actions were not left behind simply as decoys, and the fighting so wonderfully researched and described had a direct effect on the entire campaign. Greg Mertz, supervisory historian, Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park Most studies of Chancellorsville focus on the fighting around the Chancellor house and on Stonewall Jackson s flank attack and mortal wounding. Few remember the campaign s second front at Fredericksburg and the intense deadly combat at Salem Church, where nearly 30,000 Federal troops of Sedgwick s VI Corps battled for their lives against Jubal Early s division and elements of Longstreet s First Corps. This stunning oversight has finally been corrected by historians Mackowski and White. Their readable, enjoyable, and deeply researched micro-tactical study is a must for anyone interested in Civil War battles in general, and Chancellorsville in particular. Eric J. Wittenberg, award-winning Civil War author Chris Mackowski and Kristopher White s Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front focuses on an overlooked and yet complex part of Fighting Joe Hooker s 1863 effort to defeat Robert E. Lee. Their study is simply first-rate, and should not and cannot be overlooked by anyone trying to understand the full importance of the Chancellorsville campaign. Lance J. Herdegen, award-winning author of The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front is sure to be among the best Civil War books published this year. Mackowski and White demonstrate the importance of this all-too-often neglected part of campaign with authenticity and eloquence. Their research is exhaustive, and their passion for the subject obvious. If you think you know all about Chancellorsville, think again. Professional historians and amateurs alike will gain new information and fresh insight by reading this book, and come away with a better appreciation for, and knowledge of, Lee s greatest victory. Mike Stevens, President, Central Virginia Battlefields Trust"

    This careful study breaks down these campaigns (and all related operational maneuvers) into 13 map sets or "action-sections" enriched with 87 original full-page color maps. These spectacular cartographic creations bore down to the regimental and battery level.The Maps of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run Campaigns includes the actions at Auburn and Bristoe Station, where Meade's II Corps was nearly trapped and destroyed and the Confederates were caught by surprise and slaughtered; the seminal actions at Rappahannock Station and Kelly's Ford, where portions of Lee's army were surprised and overwhelmed; and the Mine Run Campaign, during which an aggressive Confederate division at the battle of Payne's Farm held back two full Federal corps and changed the course of the entire operation.At least one--and as many as twelve--maps accompany each "action-section." Opposite each map is a full facing page of detailed text with footnotes describing the units, personalities, movements, and combat (including quotes from eyewitnesses) depicted on the accompanying map, all of which make the story of these campaigns come alive.This original presentation offers readers a step-by-step examination through these long-overlooked but highly instructive campaigns. Coming on the heels of the fiasco that was Lee's Bristoe Station operation, the stunning Union successes at Kelly's Ford and Rappahannock Station demonstrated the weakened state of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia following the debilitating Gettysburg campaign. The Mine Run Operation that followed, with its extensive display of field works and trenches, foreshadowed the bloody fighting that would arrive with the spring weather of 1864 and highlighted once again Meade's methodical approach to battlefield operations that left the authorities in Washington wondering whether he possessed the tenacity to defeat Lee. This detailed coverage is augmented with fascinating explanatory notes. Detailed orders of battle, together with a bibliography and index complete this exciting new volume.Perfect for the easy chair or for walking hallowed ground, The Maps of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run Campaigns is a seminal work that, like Gottfried's earlier atlases on Gettysburg, First Bull Run, and Antietam, belongs on the bookshelf of every serious and casual student of the Civil War.

    Stonewall Jackson led his Second Corps around the unsuspecting Army of the Potomac on one of the most daring flank marches in history. His surprise flank attack launched with the five simple words You can go forward, then collapsed a Union corps in one of the most stunning accomplishments of the war. Flushed with victory, Jackson decided to continue attacking into the night. He and members of his staff rode beyond the lines to scout the ground while his units reorganized. However, Southern soldiers mistook the riders for Union cavalry and opened fire, mortally wounding Jackson at the apogee of his military career. One of the rounds broke Jackson s left arm, which required amputation. A week later Old Jack was dead.Calamity at Chancellorsville: The Wounding and Death of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson is the first full-length examination of Jackson s final days. Contrary to popular belief, eyewitnesses often disagreed regarding key facts relating to the events surrounding Jackson s reconnaissance, wounding, harrowing journey out of harm s way, medical care, and death. These accounts, for example, conflict regarding where Jackson was fatally wounded and even the road he was on when struck. If he wasn t wounded where history has recorded, then who delivered the fatal volley? How many times did he fall from the stretcher? What medical treatment did he receive? What type of amputation did Dr. Hunter McGuire perform? Did Jackson really utter his famous last words, "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees"? What was the cause of his death?Author Mathew W. Lively utilizes extensive primary source material and a firm understanding of the area to re-examine the gripping story of the final days of one of the Confederacy s greatest generals, and how Southerners came to view Jackson's death during and after the conflict. Dr. Lively begins his compelling narrative with a visit from Jackson s family prior to the battle of Chancellorsville, then follows his course through the conflict to its fatal outcome.Instead of revising history, Dr. Lively offers up a fresh new perspective. Calamity at Chancellorsville will stand as the definitive account of one of the most important and surprisingly misunderstood events of the American Civil War.REVIEWS "The definitive book on the last days of Stonewall Jackson." Frank A. O Reilly, author of The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock "The fatally wounded body of Stonewall Jackson has generated more controversy among historians than any of his famous military campaigns, and Mathew Lively dissects the events surrounding the general s wounding and his medical care with surgical precision. Much of the established knowledge about Stonewall Jackson s final days comes under question because of Lively s microcosmic inspection of remarkable source material and research. Calamity at Chancellorsville gives us new angles from which to observe a deadly moment in Confederate history, one that is infused with high drama and intense action." Peter S. Carmichael, Fluhrer Professor, Gettysburg College "Stonewall Jackson's wounding at Chancellorsville is one of the pivotal dramas of the Civil War. Dr. Mathew Lively is uniquely qualified to explore this tragic tale. Blending meticulous research and sparkling prose with the eye of a physician, Lively offers a fresh and compelling account of Jackson s last days in Calamity at Chancellorsville. In the process he humanizes the blue-eyed warrior, revealing valuable new insight on the cause of his death." W. Hunter Lesser, author of Rebels at the Gate

    Unlike his brother Quinn, Royce takes after his whisky-sodden, vengeful old man, Stanley O'Bannon, and defiantly admits to being a reprobate, irredeemable in the eyes of good society, a lost cause bound to hang and burn in hell. He also figures God hadn't made the woman who could tame the beast that lurked deep down in his worthless Irish soul. No woman should have anything to do with him. Then one frosty night, at a town social, he sees her, the crippled goddess, Cleantha Arnaud, the schoolmaster's daughter, a wounded bird, beautiful, fragile and way above his touch. With Cleantha accompanying him on the piano, keeping up with his unrelenting pace, they play jig after jig, waltz after waltz, schottische after schottische. Cleantha intrigues him as no other woman before, and if he reads the gleam in her river-green eyes correctly, the feeling is mutual. Even a reprobate like Royce O'Bannon suffers from a twinge of conscience from time to time, and although he despises himself for it, he can't take advantage. But Cleantha, driven by her own needs and desires, puts forth a challenge no reprobate could refuse. In Cleantha, Royce gets a glimpse of what could be. He begins to think he too could have a wife, a real home, love and security, a life he assumed unattainable, beyond his reach. For a few fleeting moments, he believes the dream could become a reality.But can he do what has to be done to win the woman of his dreams?

    When the peoples of the Indian Territory found themselves in the midst of the American Civil War, squeezed between Union Kansas and Confederate Texas and Arkansas, they had no way to escape a conflict not of their choosing--and no alternative but to suffer its consequences. When the Wolf Came explores how the war in the Indian Territory involved almost every resident, killed many civilians as well as soldiers, left the country stripped and devastated, and cost Indian nations millions of acres of land. Using a solid foundation of both published and unpublished sources, including the records of Cherokee, Choctaw, and Creek nations, Mary Jane Warde details how the coming of the war set off a wave of migration into neighboring Kansas, the Red River Valley, and Texas. She describes how Indian Territory troops in Unionist regiments or as Confederate allies battled enemies--some from their own nations--in the territory and in neighboring Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas. And she shows how post-war land cessions forced by the federal government on Indian nations formerly allied with the Confederacy allowed the removal of still more tribes to the Indian Territory, leaving millions of acres open for homesteads, railroads, and development in at least ten states. Enhanced by maps and photographs from the Oklahoma Historical Society's photographic archives, When the Wolf Came will be welcomed by both general readers and scholars interested in the signal public events that marked that tumultuous era and the consequences for the territory's tens of thousands of native peoples.

    Determined to ease the suffering of the wounded crowding the Union hospitals and honor the memory of the man she loved, she embarks on a career as a nurse. But then he arrives—a patient who makes her feel alive again in spite of her resolve to stay detached. Captain Justin Thompson understands the cost of war all too well, yet he felt compelled to fight for the Union his father died defending. Wounded at Cold Harbor and left to die at a military hospital, he owes his life to Brianna, who seems determined to guard her professional boundaries despite his best efforts to breach them. Just as he’s winning the battle for her heart, he’s forced to return to the front of a cruel war that could very well separate them forever.

    Poorly prepared to care for wounded and sick soldiers as the war began, Union and Confederate governments scrambled to provide doctoring and nursing, supplies, and shelter for those felled by warfare or disease.During the war soldiers suffered from measles, dysentery, and pneumonia and needed both preventive and curative food and medicine. Family members—especially women—and governments mounted organized support efforts, while army doctors learned to standardize medical thought and practice. Resources in the north helped return soldiers to battle, while Confederate soldiers suffered hunger and other privations and healed more slowly, when they healed at all.In telling the stories of soldiers, families, physicians, nurses, and administrators, historian Margaret Humphreys concludes that medical science was not as limited at the beginning of the war as has been portrayed. Medicine and public health clearly advanced during the war—and continued to do so after military hostilities ceased.

    But as Elizabeth Varon reveals in this vividly narrated history, this rosy image conceals a seething debate over precisely what the surrender meant and what kind of nation would emerge from war. The combatants in that debate included the iconic Lee and Grant, but they also included a cast of characters previously overlooked, who brought their own understanding of the war's causes, consequences, and meaning. In Appomattox, Varon deftly captures the events swirling around that well remembered-but not well understood-moment when the Civil War ended. She expertly depicts the final battles in Virginia, when Grant's troops surrounded Lee's half-starved army, the meeting of the generals at the McLean House, and the shocked reaction as news of the surrender spread like an electric charge throughout the nation. But as Varon shows, the ink had hardly dried before both sides launched a bitter debate over the meaning of the war. For Grant, and for most in the North, the Union victory was one of right over wrong, a vindication of free society; for many African Americans, the surrender marked the dawn of freedom itself. Lee, in contrast, believed that the Union victory was one of might over right: the vast impersonal Northern war machine had worn down a valorous and unbowed South. Lee was committed to peace, but committed, too, to the restoration of the South's political power within the Union and the perpetuation of white supremacy. Lee's vision of the war resonated broadly among Confederates and conservative northerners, and inspired Southern resistance to reconstruction. Did America's best days lie in the past or in the future? For Lee, it was the past, the era of the founding generation. For Grant, it was the future, represented by Northern moral and material progress. They held, in the end, two opposite views of the direction of the country-and of the meaning of the war that had changed that country forever.

    Stuck far behind enemy lines with little hope for exchange, escape seems improbable. Neither high prison walls nor hundreds of miles of Ohio backwoods trails will keep him from trying.Philip Pearson survived Shiloh but wonders if his luck will hold much longer. Pursuing reinstatement in the Methodist Episcopal Church brings him full circle: his battlefield experience calling him back to the collar he left behind. Only convincing the bishop of Dayton and surviving the coming assaults on Corinth stand in his way of a chaplaincy.Ohio, far from the theaters of war, will test both men's ambitions and trust in their fellow man.

     Since its debut, The New York Times' acclaimed web journal entitled 'Disunion' has published hundreds of original articles and won multiple awards, including "Best History Website" from the New Media Institute and the History News Network. Following the chronology of the secession crisis and the Civil War, the contributors to Disunion, who include modern scholars, journalists, historians, and Civil War buffs, offer contemporary commentary and assessment of the Civil War as it unfolded chronologically. Now, this commentary has been gathered together and organized in one volume. In The New York Times: Disunion, historian Ted Widmer has curated more than 100 articles that span events beginning with Lincoln's presidential victory through the Emancipation Proclamation. Topics include everything from Walt Whitman's wartime diary to the bloody guerrilla campaigns in Missouri and Kansas. Esteemed contributors include William Freehling, Adam Goodheart, and Edward Ayers, among others. The book also compiles new essays that have not been published on the Disunion site by well-known historians such as David Blight, Gary Gallagher, and Drew Gilpin Faust. Topics include the perspective of African-American slaves and freed men on the war, the secession crisis in the Upper South, the war in the West (that is, past the Appalachians), the war in Texas, the international context, and Civil War-era cartography. Portraits, contemporary etchings, and detailed maps round out the book.

    Long overshadowed by Appomattox, this event was equally important in ending the war, and is much more representative of how most Americans in 1865 experienced the conflict's end. The book includes a timeline, organizational charts, an order of battle, maps, and illustrations. It also uses many unpublished accounts and provides information on Confederate campsites that have been lost to development and neglect.

    Confederates, fortified behind a stone wall along a sunken road, poured a hail of lead into them as they charged . . . and faltered . . . and died. “I had never before seen fighting like that, nothing approaching it in terrible uproar and destruction,” said one eyewitness to the slaughter. “It is only murder now.”The battle of Fredericksburg is usually remembered as the most lopsided Union defeat of the Civil War. It is sometimes called “Burnside’s folly,” after Union commander Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside who led the Army of the Potomac to ruin along the banks of the Rappahannock River. But the battle remains one of the most misunderstood and misremembered engagements of the war. Burnside started with a well-conceived plan and had every reason to expect victory. How did it go so terribly wrong?Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have worked for years along Fredericksburg’s Sunken Road and Stone Wall, and they’ve escorted thousands of visitors across the battlefield. Simply Murder not only recounts Fredericksburg’s tragic story of slaughter, but includes invaluable information about the battlefield itself and the insights they’ve learned from years of walking the ground.Simply Murder can be enjoyed in the comfort of one’s living room or as a guide on the battlefield itself. It is also the first release in the new “Emerging Civil War Series,” which offers compelling and easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important battles and issues.

    From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg to Appomattox and points between, Sauers illuminates the path of the war, providing stories of the battles and key participants along with fascinating sidebars covering a variety of related topics. He also covers helpful visitor information for the battleground tourist, including phone numbers and websites, hours, parking details, admission fees, and available tours and programs. With its wealth of concise and engaging information, Civil War Battlegrounds lets you walk in the footsteps of the men and women who lived, fought, and died in this bloodiest of American conflicts.

    2013."Beginning with the B & O's reaction to John Brown's Raid in 1859 and ending with the demobilization of the Union Army in 1865, the overall strategy and political aims of the time period are blended with the battles and daily operational challenges of a Civil War Railroad. "Author Daniel Carroll Toomey is a Civil War historian and Guest Curator at the B & O Railroad Museum."

    He explores conditions that arose from conscious government policy decisions and conditions that were the product of local officials or unique local situations. He also considers how Confederate prisons and policies dealt with African American Union soldiers. Black soldiers held captive in Confederate prisons faced uncertain fates; many former slaves were returned to their former owners, while others faced harsh treatment in the camps. Drawing on prisoner diaries, Pickenpaugh provides compelling first-person accounts of life in prison camps often overlooked by scholars in the field. This study of Union captives in Confederate prisons is a companion to Roger Pickenpaugh’s earlier groundbreaking book Captives in Gray: The Civil War Prisons of the Union and extends his examination of Civil War prisoner-of-war facilities into the Confederacy.

    One of the nation's most colorful leaders, Confederate general John Hunt Morgan, took his cavalry through enemy-occupied territory in three states in one of the longest offensives of the Civil War. The effort produced the only battles fought north of the Ohio River and reached farther north than any other regular Confederate force. With twenty-five maps and more than forty illustrations, Morgan's Raid historian David L. Mowery takes a new look at this unprecedented event in American history, one historians rank among the world's greatest land-based raids since Elizabethan times.

     In this 1869 book, she spares the reader no detail while humanizing what would otherwise be just statistics of casualties. She and her sister nurses cared for Union and Confederate, black and white, dressed their wounds and held their hands as they died. But she also has stories of hope and happy endings. Like her comrades, they didn't always play by the rules but did what they thought best for the soldiers. She volunteered for service at Gettysburg. She heard the cannons up close and had shrapnel and minnie balls rip through the canvas of her hospital tent. For less than you'd spend on gas going to the library, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

    What makes a man a gifted soldier and natural leader? In this compelling book, Diane Monroe Smith argues that finding the answer requires a consideration of Chamberlain's entire life, not just his few years on the battlefield. Truly understanding Chamberlain is impossible, Smith maintains, without exploring the life of Joshua's soul mate and wife of almost fifty years, Fanny. In this dual biography, Fanny emerges as a bright, talented woman who kept Professor, General, and then Governor Chamberlain on his toes. But you don't have to take Smith's word for it. Liberally quoting from years of correspondence, the author invites you to judge for yourself.

    Edward and Sarah Fitch were on the frontlines of the anti-slavery movement in America. They were in Lawrence, Kan. when William Quantrill and his raiders committed the greatest civilian atrocity of the war by burning the town and killing more than 180 defenseless civilians. More than 150 letters from the couple give history buffs new insight into the bitter, personal battles that fueled the flames of war. A great collection for anyone who wants a complete understanding of the Civil War.

    The XIV Legion under the command of General Suetonius and the Tribune, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, march west on a mission to crush insurgent tribes in Rome's newest Province, Britannia. Fergus MacAmergin is an officer in a Celtic auxiliary cavalry regiment that rides alongside them. As the British tribes wage guerrilla war on the Romans, Fergus falls foul of his commander. His punishment is to lead a squad of men on a suicidal mission deep behind enemy lines. Joining forces with Agricola, Fergus is tasked with finding a mystical spear, said to be the weapon that pierced the side of Jesus Christ on the cross. As the assignment unfolds, it becomes clear that there is more to the spear than meets the eye and he is heading directly for a confrontation with dark forces from his past.

    Lee against Ulysses S. Grant is one of the most famous campaigns of the Civil War, and perhaps its greatest chess match. While Grant sought to destroy Lee's Army of Northern Virginia along the way to Richmond, Lee aimed to defend his capital while staying alert for a golden opportunity to strike a decisive blow against Grant's Army of the Potomac. The result was an incredibly costly campaign that saw 4 major battles and near continuous fighting in May and June 1864. At the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5-7, 1864), Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee had fought to a standstill in their first encounter, failing to dislodge each other despite incurring nearly 30,000 casualties between the Union Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Despite the fierce fighting, Grant continued to push his battered but resilient army south, hoping to beat Lee’s army to the crossroads at Spotsylvania Court House, but Lee’s army beat Grant’s to Spotsylvania and began digging in, setting the scene for on and off fighting from May 8-21 that ultimately inflicted more casualties than the Battle of the Wilderness. In fact, with over 32,000 casualties among the two sides, it was the deadliest battle of the Overland Campaign.After Spotsylvania, Grant and Lee both raced to the next natural defensive line, the North Anna River, where Lee sprang a trap for Grant by establishing an inverted V as a defensive line, with the salient touching the North Anna River, which would allow the Army of Northern Virginia to use interior lines to fall upon the separate wings of the Union army if it tried to cross the river. As fate would have it, Grant would fall into Lee’s trap, only for Lee to be debilitated by illness at the crucial moments, allowing Grant to realize the potential mistake and avoid a major pitched battle.By the time the two armies reached Cold Harbor near the end of May 1864, Grant incorrectly thought that Lee’s army was on the verge of collapse. On June 3, 1864, sensing he could break Lee’s army, Grant ordered a full out assault at dawn in the hopes of catching the rebels before they could fully entrench. Although the story of Union soldiers pinning their names on the back of their uniforms in anticipation of death at Cold Harbor is apocryphal, the frontal assault on June 3 inflicted thousands of Union casualties in about half an hour. In just minutes, 7,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded as 30,000 Confederate soldiers successfully held the line against 50,000 Union troops, losing just 1,500 men in the process. The Overland Campaign stunned Americans in 1864, but Cold Harbor would be the last major battle of the Overland Campaign because Grant would reach his objective by stealing a march on Lee to cross the James River, beginning the actions that would lead to the siege of Petersburg. This book chronicles the campaign with analysis of the generalship, accounts by generals and soldiers, pictures, and more.