Lee—perhaps the most famous and least understood legend in American history and one of our most admired heroes.Michael Korda, author of Ulysses S. Grant and the bestsellers Ike and Hero, paints a vivid and admiring portrait of Lee as a brilliant general, a devoted family man, and principled gentleman who disliked slavery and disagreed with secession, yet who refused command of the Union Army in 1861 because he could not "draw his sword" against his beloved Virginia.Well-rounded and realistic, Clouds of Glory analyzes Lee's command during the Civil War and explores his responsibility for the fatal stalemate at Antietam, his defeat at Gettysburg (as well the many troubling controversies still surrounding it) and ultimately, his failed strategy for winning the war. As Korda shows, Lee's dignity, courage, leadership, and modesty made him a hero on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line and a revered American icon who is recognized today as the nation's preeminent military leader.Clouds of Glory features dozens of stunning illustrations, some never before seen, including twelve pages of color, twenty-four pages of black-and-white, and nearly fifty in-text battle maps.

    As much as any person in the Confederate pantheon, even Robert E. Lee, he embodies the romantic Southern notion of the virtuous lost cause. Jackson is also considered, without argument, one of our country’s greatest military figures. His brilliance at the art of war tied Abraham Lincoln and the Union high command in knots and threatened the ultimate success of the Union armies. Jackson’s strategic innovations shattered the conventional wisdom of how war was waged; he was so far ahead of his time that his techniques would be studied generations into the future. In April 1862 Jackson was merely another Confederate general in an army fighting what seemed to be a losing cause. By June he had engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the most famous men in the Western world. He had, moreover, given the Confederate cause what it had recently lacked—hope—and struck fear into the hearts of the Union. Rebel Yell is written with the swiftly vivid narrative that is Gwynne’s hallmark and is rich with battle lore, biographical detail, and intense conflict between historical figures. Gwynne delves deep into Jackson’s private life, including the loss of his young beloved first wife and his regimented personal habits. It traces Jackson’s brilliant twenty-four-month career in the Civil War, the period that encompasses his rise from obscurity to fame and legend; his stunning effect on the course of the war itself; and his tragic death, which caused both North and South to grieve the loss of a remarkable American hero.

    Lincoln realized that the Civil War had taken on a wider significance—that all of Europe and Latin America was watching to see whether the United States, a beleaguered model of democracy, would indeed “perish from the earth.”In The Cause of All Nations, distinguished historian Don H. Doyle explains that the Civil War was viewed abroad as part of a much larger struggle for democracy that spanned the Atlantic Ocean, and had begun with the American and French Revolutions. While battles raged at Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg, a parallel contest took place abroad, both in the marbled courts of power and in the public square. Foreign observers held widely divergent views on the war—from radicals such as Karl Marx and Giuseppe Garibaldi who called on the North to fight for liberty and equality, to aristocratic monarchists, who hoped that the collapse of the Union would strike a death blow against democratic movements on both sides of the Atlantic. Nowhere were these monarchist dreams more ominous than in Mexico, where Napoleon III sought to implement his Grand Design for a Latin Catholic empire that would thwart the spread of Anglo-Saxon democracy and use the Confederacy as a buffer state.Hoping to capitalize on public sympathies abroad, both the Union and the Confederacy sent diplomats and special agents overseas: the South to seek recognition and support, and the North to keep European powers from interfering. Confederate agents appealed to those conservative elements who wanted the South to serve as a bulwark against radical egalitarianism. Lincoln and his Union agents overseas learned to appeal to many foreigners by embracing emancipation and casting the Union as the embattled defender of universal republican ideals, the “last best hope of earth.”A bold account of the international dimensions of America's defining conflict, The Cause of All Nations frames the Civil War as a pivotal moment in a global struggle that would decide the survival of democracy.

    Gen. John Buford and his First Cavalry Division troops, there is not a single book-length study devoted entirely to the critical delaying actions waged by Buford and his dismounted troopers and his horse artillerists on the morning of July 1, 1863. Award-winning Civil War historian Eric J. Wittenberg rectifies this glaring oversight with The Devil s to Pay: John Buford at Gettysburg. A History and Walking Tour.This comprehensive tactical study examines the role Buford and his horse soldiers played from June 29 through July 2, 1863, including the important actions that saved the shattered remnants of the First and Eleventh Corps. Wittenberg relies upon scores of rare primary sources, including many that have never before been used, to paint a detailed picture of the critical role the quiet and modest cavalryman known to his men as Honest John or Old Steadfast played at Gettysburg. The Devil s to Pay also includes a detailed walking and driving tour of pertinent sites, complete with GPS coordinates. Three appendices address the nature of Buford s defense at Gettysburg, whether his troopers were armed with repeating weapons, and whether a feint by his men late in the day caused the Confederate infantry to form squares (a Napoleonic defensive tactic). Finally, 17 maps by Gettysburg cartographer Phil Laino, together with more than 80 images, several published for the first time, round out this study. The Devil s to Pay is a must-have for Gettysburg enthusiasts."

    It certainly lived up to that grim sobriquet in September 1863 when the Union Army of the Cumberland and Confederate Army of Tennessee waged bloody combat along the banks of West Chickamauga Creek. Long considered a two-day affair, award-winning author David Powell embraces a fresh approach that explores Chickamauga as a three-day battle, with September 18 being key to understanding how the fighting developed the next morning. The second largest battle of the Civil War produced 35,000 casualties and one of the last, clear-cut Confederate tactical victories—a triumph that for a short time reversed a series of Rebel defeats and reinvigorated the hope for Southern independence. At issue was Chattanooga, the important gateway to the South and logistical springboard into Georgia.Despite its size, importance, and fascinating cast of characters, this epic Western Theater battle has received but scant attention. Powell masterfully rectifies this oversight with The Chickamauga Campaign—A Mad Irregular Battle: From the Crossing of the Tennessee River Through the Second Day, August 22 September 19, 1863. The first of three installments spanning the entire campaign, A Mad Irregular Battle includes the Tullahoma Campaign in June, which set the stage for Chickamauga, and continues through the second day of fighting on September 19. The second installment finishes the battle from dawn on September 20 and carries both armies through the retreat into Chattanooga and the beginning of the siege. The third and last book of the series includes appendices and essays exploring specific questions about the battle in substantially greater detail.Powell's magnificent study fully explores the battle from all perspectives and is based upon fifteen years of intensive study and research that has uncovered nearly 2,000 primary sources from generals to private, all stitched together to relate the remarkable story that was Chickamauga. Here, finally, readers will absorb the thoughts and deeds of hundreds of the battle s veterans, many of whom they have never heard of or read about. In addition to archival sources, newspapers, and other firsthand accounts, Powell grounds his conclusions in years of personal study of the terrain itself and regularly leads tours of the battlefield. His prose is as clear and elegant as it is authoritative and definitive.The Chickamauga Campaign—A Mad Irregular Battle is Powell s magnum opus, a tour-de-force rich in analysis brimming with heretofore untold stories. It will surely be a classic must-have battle study for every serious student of the Civil War."

    The name lived up to that grim sobriquet in September 1863 when the Union Army of the Cumberland and Confederate Army of Tennessee waged a sprawling bloody combat along the banks of West Chickamauga Creek. This installment of Powell s tour-de-force depicts the final day of battle, when the Confederate army attacked and broke through the Union lines, triggering a massive rout, an incredible defensive stand atop Snodgrass Hill, and a confused retreat and pursuit into Chattanooga. Powell presents all of this with clarity and precision by weaving nearly 2,000 primary accounts with his own cogent analysis. The result is a rich and deep portrait of the fighting and command relationships on a scale never before attempted or accomplished.His upcoming third volume, Analysis of a Barren Victory, will conclude the set with careful insight into the fighting and its impact on the war, Powell s detailed research into the strengths and losses of the two armies, and an exhaustive bibliography.Powell's magnum opus, complete with original maps, photos, and illustrations, is the culmination of many years of research and study, coupled with a complete understanding of the battlefield s complex terrain system. For any student of the Civil War in general, or the Western Theater in particular, Powell s trilogy is a must-read.

    In this gripping and affecting novel, three young Confederates and an entire town come face-to-face with the prison’s atrocities and will learn the cost of compassion, when withheld and when given.Sentry Dance Pickett has watched, helpless, for months as conditions in the camp worsen by the day. He knows any mercy will be seen as treason. Southern belle Violet Stiles cannot believe the good folk of Americus would knowingly condone such barbarism, despite the losses they’ve suffered. When her goodwill campaign stirs up accusations of Union sympathies and endangers her family, however, she realizes she must tread carefully. Confederate corporal Emery Jones didn’t expect to find camaraderie with the Union prisoner he escorted to Andersonville. But the soldier’s wit and integrity strike a chord in Emery. How could this man be an enemy? Emery vows that their unlikely friendship will survive the war—little knowing what that promise will cost him.As these three young Rebels cross paths, Emery leads Dance and Violet to a daring act that could hang them for treason. Wrestling with God’s harsh truth, they must decide, once and for all, Who is my neighbor?

    However, none has told the story of Shiloh as Timothy Smith does in this volume, the first comprehensive history of the two-day battle in April 1862 a battle so fluid and confusing that its true nature has eluded a clear narrative telling until now. Unfolding over April 6th and 7th, the Battle of Shiloh produced the most sprawling and bloody field of combat since the Napoleonic wars, with an outcome that set the Confederacy on the road to defeat. Contrary to previous histories, Smith tells us, the battle was not won or lost on the first day, but rather in the decision-making of the night that followed and in the next day's fighting. Devoting unprecedented attention to the details of that second day, his book shows how the Union's triumph was far less assured, and much harder to achieve, than has been acknowledged. Smith also employs a new organization strategy to clarify the action. By breaking his analysis of both days' fighting into separate phases and sectors, he makes it much easier to grasp what was happening in each combat zone, why it unfolded as it did, and how it related to the broader tactical and operational context of the entire battle. The battlefield's diverse and challenging terrain also comes in for new scrutiny. Through detailed attention to the terrain's major features most still visible at the Shiloh National Military Park Smith is able to track their specific and considerable influence on the actions, and their consequences, over those forty-eight hours. The experience of the soldiers finally finds its place here too, as Smith lets us hear, as never before, the voices of the common man, whether combatant or local civilian, caught up in a historic battle for their lives, their land, their honor, and their homes. "We must this day conquer or perish," Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston declared on the morning of April 6, 1862. His words proved prophetic, and might serve as an epitaph for the larger war, as we see fully for the first time in this unparalleled and surely definitive history of the Battle of Shiloh."

    John Michael Priest, dubbed the Ernie Pyle of the Civil War soldier, wrote this book to help readers understand and experience, as closely as possible through the written word, the stress and terror of that fateful day in Pennsylvania. Readers will gain a deeper appreciation of the personal sacrifice made that awful day by privates and generals alike. This invaluable method uses their own words to paint a rich tapestry of their personal courage and cowardice, and their failures and triumphs.Nearly 60 detailed maps, mostly on the regimental level, illustrate the tremendous troop congestion in the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, and Devil s Den. They accurately establish, by regiment or by company, the extent of the Federal skirmish line from Ziegler s Grove to the Slyder farm and portray the final Confederate push against the Codori farm and the center of Cemetery Ridge, which three Confederate divisions in what is popularly known as Pickett s Charge would unsuccessfully attack on the final day of fighting.This is a book about combat as seen through the eyes of those who waged it. There is no glamour here, and no adventure. Nor are there accusations, confessions, or second-guessing from the comfort of an easy chair. Instead, Stand to It and Give Them Hell offers the brutal, heart-wrenching story of a slice of America s greatest battle as described by those who marched, fought, bled, and died there. This is their story, and it is one you will long remember.

    Robert E. Lee used intelligence resources, including cavalry, civilians, newspapers, and spies to gather information about Union activities during his invasion of the North in June and July 1863, and how this intelligence influenced General Lee's decisions. Simultaneously, Ryan explores the effectiveness of the Union Army of the Potomac's intelligence and counterintelligence operations. Both Maj. Gens. Joe Hooker and George G. Meade relied upon cavalry, the Signal Corps, and an intelligence staff known as the Bureau of Military Information that employed innovative concepts to gather, collate, and report vital information from a variety of sources.The result is an eye-opening, day-by-day analysis of how and why the respective army commanders implemented their strategy and tactics, with an evaluation of their respective performance as they engaged in a battle of wits to learn the enemy's location, strength, and intentions.Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign is grounded upon a broad foundation of archival research and a firm understanding of the theater of operations that specialists will especially value. Everyone will appreciate reading about a familiar historic event from a perspective that is both new and enjoyable. One thing is certain: no one will close this book and look at the Gettysburg Campaign in the same way again.

    In Loathing Lincoln, historian John McKee Barr surveys the broad array of criticisms about Abraham Lincoln that emerged when he stepped onto the national stage, expanded during the Civil War, and continued to evolve after his death and into the present. The first panoramic study of Lincoln's critics, Barr's work offers an analysis of Lincoln in historical memory and an examination of how his critics -- on both the right and left -- have frequently reflected the anxiety and discontent Americans felt about their lives. From northern abolitionists troubled by the slow pace of emancipation, to Confederates who condemned him as a "black Republican" and despot, to Americans who blamed him for the civil rights movement, to, more recently, libertarians who accuse him of trampling the Constitution and creating the modern welfare state, Lincoln's detractors have always been a vocal minority, but not one without influence.By meticulously exploring the most significant arguments against Lincoln, Barr traces the rise of the president's most strident critics and links most of them to a distinct right-wing or neo-Confederate political agenda. According to Barr, their hostility to a more egalitarian America and opposition to any use of federal power to bring about such goals led them to portray Lincoln as an imperialistic president who grossly overstepped the bounds of his office. In contrast, liberals criticized him for not doing enough to bring about emancipation or ensure lasting racial equality. Lincoln's conservative and libertarian foes, however, constituted the vast majority of his detractors. More recently, Lincoln's most vociferous critics have adamantly opposed Barack Obama and his policies, many of them referencing Lincoln in their attacks on the current president. In examining these individuals and groups, Barr's study provides a deeper understanding of American political life and the nation itself.

    For the 250 Union soldiers facing down rebel irregulars on Enoch Toothman’s farm near Butler, Missouri, this was no battle over abstract principles. These were men of the First Kansas Colored Infantry, and they were fighting for their own freedom and that of their families. They belonged to the first black regiment raised in a northern state, and the first black unit to see combat during the Civil War. Soldiers in the Army of Freedom is the first published account of this largely forgotten regiment and, in particular, its contribution to Union victory in the trans-Mississippi theater of the Civil War. As such, it restores the First Kansas Colored Infantry to its rightful place in American history. Composed primarily of former slaves, the First Kansas Colored saw major combat in Missouri, Indian Territory, and Arkansas. Ian Michael Spurgeon draws upon a wealth of little-known sources—including soldiers’ pension applications—to chart the intersection of race and military service, and to reveal the regiment’s role in countering white prejudices by defying stereotypes. Despite naysayers’ bigoted predictions—and a merciless slaughter at the Battle of Poison Spring—these black soldiers proved themselves as capable as their white counterparts, and so helped shape the evolving attitudes of leading politicians, such as Kansas senator James Henry Lane and President Abraham Lincoln. A long-overdue reconstruction of the regiment’s remarkable combat record, Spurgeon’s book brings to life the men of the First Kansas Colored Infantry in their doubly desperate battle against the Confederate forces and skepticism within Union ranks.

    Gen. Andrew Jackson Smith, set out from Tennessee with a goal that had proven impossible in all prior attempts to find and defeat the cavalry under the command of Confederate major general Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest's cavalry was the greatest threat to the long supply line feeding Sherman s armies as they advanced on Atlanta.Smith marched at the head of his gorillas, veteran soldiers who were fresh from the Red River Campaign. Aside from diverting Confederate attention away from Sherman, Smith's orders were to destroy Southern railroads and confront Forrest in Mississippi. Just weeks earlier, a similar Union expedition had met with disaster at the Battle of Brice's Crossroads, perhaps the greatest victory of Forrest's military career.Joined by reinforcements led by Lt. Gen. Stephen Dill Lee, Forrest and his men were confident and their morale had never been higher. However, for two weeks, Smith outmarched, outfought, and outmaneuvered the team of Lee and Forrest. In three days of bitter fighting, culminating in the battle at Harrisburg, the Confederates suffered a staggering defeat. Forrest s corps was devastated. He and his men would recover but would never regain their earlier strength, nor would they ever again prove a serious threat to veteran Union infantry.Work for Giants focuses on the details of this overlooked campaign and the efforts, postbattle and postwar, to minimize the outcome and consequences of an important Union victory. Parson draws heavily from previously untapped diaries, letters and journals, and eyewitness accounts, bringing to life the oppressive heat, cruel depredations, and brutal combat the soldiers encountered, and the stoic humor they used to endure them

    But when Confederate troops launched a strong counterattack, both sides realized the war would be longer and costlier than anticipated. First Bull Run, or First Manassas, set the stage for four years of bloody conflict that forever changed the political, social, and economic fabric of the nation. It also introduced the commanders, tactics, and weaponry that would define the American way of war through the turn of the twentieth century.This crucial campaign receives its most complete and comprehensive treatment in Edward G. Longacre’s The Early Morning of War. A magisterial work by a veteran historian, The Early Morning of War blends narrative and analysis to convey the full scope of the campaign of First Bull Run—its drama and suspense as well as its practical and tactical underpinnings and ramifications. Also woven throughout are biographical sketches detailing the backgrounds and personalities of the leading commanders and other actors in the unfolding conflict.Longacre has combed previously unpublished primary sources, including correspondence, diaries, and memoirs of more than four hundred participants and observers, from ranking commanders to common soldiers and civilians affected by the fighting. In weighing all the evidence, Longacre finds correctives to long-held theories about campaign strategy and battle tactics and questions sacrosanct beliefs—such as whether the Manassas Gap Railroad was essential to the Confederate victory. Longacre shears away the myths and persuasively examines the long-term repercussions of the Union’s defeat at Bull Run, while analyzing whether the Confederates really had a chance of ending the war in July 1861 by seizing Washington, D.C.Brilliant moves, avoidable blunders, accidents, historical forces, personal foibles: all are within Longacre’s compass in this deftly written work that is sure to become the standard history of the first, critical campaign of the Civil War.662 pages in length, 502 pages of narrative.

    1: Secession to the Suffolk CampaignThe 5th Texas Infantry--"The Bloody Fifth"--was one of only three Texas regiments to fight with Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The 5th Texas established an exceptional combat record in an army known for its fighting capabilities.The regiment took part in 38 engagements, including nearly every significant battle in the Eastern Theater, as well as the Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Knoxville campaigns in the Western Theater, before laying down its arms forever at Appomattox. "The Bloody Fifth," in a pair of magnificent volumes, is the first full-length study to document this fabled regimental command.The first installment, Secession to the Suffolk Campaign, opens the regiment's rich history from the withdrawal of the Lone Star State from the Union and the organization of ten independent east and central Texas companies, through the spring of 1863 and its complex and often-misunderstood mission around Suffolk, Virginia. The 5th's battlefield prowess was demonstrated early in its inaugural fighting on the Virginia peninsula in early 1862, but it was at Second Manassas later that year where the regiment earned its enduring nickname by attacking and crushing the 5th New York Zouaves. Flushed with victory, the Texans pushed through the disintegrating Federal lines and outdistanced not only the remainder of the brigade but the rest of the Confederate army. The 5th Texas, boasted Gen. John Bell Hood in his official report, had "slipped the bridle." The undying sobriquet "The Bloody Fifth" was now part of American military history.Schmutz's definitive study is based upon years of archival battlefield research that uncovered hundreds of primary sources, many never before used. The result is a lively account of not only the regiment's marches and battles but also a personal look into the lives of these Texans as they struggled to survive a vicious war 2,000 miles from home. The second installment, Gettysburg to Appomattox, will complete the history."The Bloody Fifth"--The 5th Texas Infantry, Hood's Texas Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia, with photos, original maps, explanatory footnotes, and important and useful appendices, is a significant contribution to the history of Texas and the American Civil War.

    Although Welles initially knew little of naval matters, he rebuilt a service depleted by Confederate defections, planned actions that gave the Union badly needed victories in the war’s early days, and oversaw a blockade that weakened the South’s economy.   Perhaps the hardest-working member of the cabinet, Welles still found time to keep a detailed diary that has become one of the key documents for understanding the inner workings of the Lincoln administration. In this new edition, William E. and Erica L. Gienapp have restored Welles’s original observations, gleaned from the manuscript diaries at the Library of Congress and freed from his many later revisions, so that the reader can experience what he wrote in the moment. With his vitriolic pen, Welles captures the bitter disputes over strategy and war aims, lacerates colleagues from Secretary of State William H. Seward to General-in-Chief Henry Halleck, and condemns the actions of the self-serving southern elite he sees as responsible for the war. He can just as easily wax eloquent about the Navy's wartime achievements, extoll the virtues of Lincoln, or drop in a tidbit of Washington gossip.   Carefully edited and extensively annotated, this edition contains a wealth of supplementary material. The several appendixes include short biographies of the members of Lincoln’s cabinet, the retrospective Welles wrote after leaving office covering the period missing from the diary proper, and important letters regarding naval matters and international law.

    When one thinks of the American Civil War, it is easy to conjure up images of great generals developing brilliant strategies and influential politicians making historic decisions; but there was a great deal more going on…In this book, you will find Civil War stories most people have never heard before, told by people who actually lived during those momentous times. From intrepid young men who went aloft in balloons and viewed the enemy’s position, to the joys and miseries of the private soldier, to the daring activities of secret spies... Laugh as Sir Henry Morton Stanley recounts his adventure, as a young private, raiding the farm of a Unionist to “forage” for he and his messmates’ Christmas dinner. Or, be amazed as Sarah Edmonds tells how she disguised herself and made her way deep within Confederate lines. These accounts and many more make up this unique collection of amazing Civil War stories... From camp pranks to close, bloody conflict; and from the jubilation of victory to the misery of defeat, you can find it all in War Stories: The American Civil War, Remembered by Those Who Were There.

    From the time of his presidency to the present day, American Jews have persistently viewed Lincoln as one of their own, casting him as a Jewish sojourner and, in certain respects, a Jewish role model. This pioneering compendiumOCo The first volume of annotated documents to focus on the history of LincolnOCOs image, influence, and reputation among American JewsOCo considers how Lincoln acquired his exceptional status and how, over the past century and a half, this fascinating relationship has evolved.Organized into twelve chronological and thematic chapters, these little-known primary source documentsOComany never before published and some translated into English for the first timeOCoconsist of newspaper clippings, journal articles, letters, poems, and sermons, and provide insight into a wide variety of issues relating to LincolnOCOs Jewish connection. Topics include LincolnOCOs early encounters with Central European Jewish immigrants living in the Old Northwest; LincolnOCOs Jewish political allies; his encounters with Jews and the Jewish community as President; LincolnOCOs response to the Jewish chaplain controversy; General U. S. GrantOCOs General Orders No. 11 expelling OC Jews, as a classOCO from the Military Department of Tennessee; the question of amending the U.S. Constitution to legislate the countryOCOs so-called Christian national character; and Jewish eulogies after LincolnOCOs assassination. Other chapters consider the crisis of conscience that arose when President Andrew Johnson proclaimed a national day of mourning for Lincoln on the festival of "Shavuot "(the Feast of Weeks), a day when Jewish law enjoins Jews to rejoice and not to mourn; LincolnOCOs Jewish detractors contrasted to his boosters; how American Jews have intentionally OC JudaizedOCO Lincoln ever since his death; the leading role that American Jews have played in in crafting LincolnOCOs image and in preserving his memory for the American nation; American Jewish reflections on the question OC What Would Lincoln Do?OCO; and how Lincoln, for AmericaOCOs Jewish citizenry, became the avatar of AmericaOCOs highest moral aspirations. With thoughtful chapter introductions that provide readers with a context for the annotated documents that follow, this volume provides a fascinating chronicle of American JewryOCOs unfolding historical encounter with the life and symbolic image of Abraham Lincoln, shedding light on how the cultural interchange between American ideals and Jewish traditions influences the dynamics of the American Jewish experience."

    Before the war, Bostonians were bitterly divided between those who supported the Union and those opposed to its endorsement of slavery. The Fugitive Slave Act brought the horrors of slavery close to home and led many to join the abolitionists. March to war with Boston's brave soldiers, including the grandson of Patriot Paul Revere and the Fighting Irish. The all-black Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment battled against both slavery and discrimination, while Boston's women fought tirelessly against slavery and for their own right to be full citizens of the Union. Join local historian and author Barbara F. Berenson on a thrilling and memorable journey through Civil War Boston.

    General John Bell Hood of the ConfederateArmy of Tennessee attempted to capture Nashville, the final realistic chance fora battlefield victory against the Northern juggernaut. Hood’s former West Pointinstructor, Major General George Henry Thomas, led the Union force, fighting thosewho doubted him in his own army as well as Hood’s Confederates. Through thebloody, horrific battles at Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville and a freezingretreat to the Tennessee River, Hood ultimately failed. Civil War historianJames R. Knight chronicles the Confederacy’s last real hope at victory and itsbitter disappointment.

    And the only two Union people who know this are a man playing a woman, and a runaway slave. Months earlier, Nathan VanHorn was a stage actor in 1862 Connecticut. He was skilled at playing (short) leading men, also teen boys—but what he was famous for was playing young women. Theater critics described his portrayals of ingénues as "uncanny." Nathan's acting talents got him recruited as the perfect Union spy. What Southerner would believe that a moustached German man, an Irish crone, a panhandler twelve-year-old stripling, and a Southern belle were all the same Connecticut man? Nathan and Hattie Hamundsen, a smart and educated Negress, are sneaked into South Carolina. Soon they arrive at Belle Bois, where Nathan impersonates Katherine Bonveneau, the young, flighty heir to her father's plantation. Soon after, Nathan and Hattie get orders: the Rebels are shipping lots of iron to a South Carolina swamp; "Investigate and report." But soon they realize: This ironclad is a serious threat, and things are happening too quickly. Nathan and Hattie must do more than report the ironclad, they must _destroy_ it. Tags: acting and actors, American Civil War, Charleston (SC), Civil War, Confederacy, Confederate Navy, Connecticut, cross-dressing, female impersonator, ironclad ship, New Haven (CT), no sex, plantation life, South Carolina, spies, tg, theater, transgender, transvestite PUBLISHER'S NOTE: All ebooks by this publisher are free of DRM (Digital Rights Meddling).

    

    Though Texas was often considered an isolated backwater in the conflict, the Union's pervasive and systematic seizure of Southern ports left Galveston as one of the only strongholds of foreign imports in the anemic supply chain to embattled Confederate forces. Long, fast steamships ran in and out of the city's port almost every week, bound to and from Cuba. Join author Andrew W. Hall as he explores the story of Texas's Civil War blockade runners- a story of daring, of desperation and, in many cases, of patriotism turning coat to profiteering.

    Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. It was May, 1864. The Civil War had dragged into its fourth spring. It was time to end things, Grant resolved, once and for all.With the Union Army of the Potomac as his sledge, Grant crossed the Rapidan River, intending to draw the Army of Northern Virginia into one final battle. Short of that, he planned to hammer continuously against the armed forces of the enemy and his resources, until by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him . . . . Almost immediately, though, Robert E. Lee s Confederates brought Grant to bay in the thick tangle of the Wilderness. Rather than retreat, as other army commanders had done in the past, Grant outmaneuvered Lee, swinging left and south.There was, after all, no turning back. I intend to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer, Grant vowed. And he did: from the dark, close woods of the Wilderness to the Muleshoe of Spotsylvania, to the steep banks of the North Anna River, to the desperate charges of Cold Harbor. The 1864 Overland Campaign would be a nonstop grind of fighting, maneuvering, and marching, much of it in rain and mud, with casualty lists longer than anything yet seen in the war.In No Turning Back: A Guide to the 1864 Overland Campaign, from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May 4 - June 13, 1864, historians Robert M. Dunkerly, Donald C. Pfanz, and David R. Ruth allow readers to follow in the footsteps of the armies as they grapple across the Virginia landscape. Pfanz spent his career as a National Park Service historian on the battlefields where the campaign began; Dunkerly and Ruth work on the battlefields where it concluded. Few people know the ground, or the campaign, better."

    The scenarios cover a number of the most famous battles of the Eastern Theater, including 1st Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station and Gettysburg, and offer both modestly sized and larger battles to the player. The smaller scenarios focus not only on smaller battles, but also on engagements within a larger encounter, while the larger scenarios present a wider view of a battle. For example, Antietam offers the three distinct corps-level actions in the north, center and the south at Burnside's Bridge, as well as the full battle. This offers Across A Deadly Field players a versatility that can accommodate their preferences and collections without sacrificing either playability of historical accuracy.

    When it was over, the Civil War's tide had turned.In the spring of 1864, Virginia remained unbroken, its armies having repelled Northern armies for more than two years. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had defeated the campaigns of four Union generals, and Lee's veterans were confident they could crush the Union offensive this spring, too. But their adversary in 1864 was a different kind of Union commander—Ulysses S. Grant. The new Union general-in-chief had never lost a major battle while leading armies in the West. A quiet, rumpled man of simple tastes and a bulldog's determination, Grant would lead the Army of the Potomac in its quest to destroy Lee's army.During six weeks in May and June 1864, Grant's army campaigned as no Union army ever had. During nearly continual combat operations, the Army of the Potomac battered its way through Virginia, skirting Richmond and crossing the James River on one of the longest pontoon bridges ever built. No campaign in North American history was as bloody as the Overland Campaign. When it ended outside Petersburg, more than 100,000 men had been killed, wounded, or captured on battlefields in the Wilderness, near Spotsylvania Court House, and at Cold Harbor. Although Grant's casualties were nearly twice Lee's, the Union could replace its losses. The Confederacy could not.Lee's army continued to fight brilliant defensive battles, but it never mounted another major offensive. Grant's spring 1864 campaign had tipped the scales permanently in the Union's favor. The war's denouement came less than a year later with Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.

    Former Missouri governor General Sterling Price and his men laid siege for three days against a Union garrison under the command of Colonel James Mulligan. An ingenious mobile breastwork of hemp bales soaked in water, designed to absorb hot shot, enabled the Confederates to close in on September 20 and force surrender. Civil War historian Larry Wood delivers a thorough account of the battle that briefly consolidated Confederate control in the region.

    Explore such fascinating topics as the Founding Fathers, Civil War battles and the gripping stories of America's formation as a nation..

    The Diary of Nannie Haskins Williams: A SouthernWoman’s Story of Rebellion and Reconstruction, 1863–1890 provides valuable insights intothe conditions in occupied Middle Tennessee. A young, elite Confederate sympathizer,Nannie was on the cusp of adulthood with the expectation of becoming a mistress ina slaveholding society. The war ended this prospect, and her life was forever changed.Though this is the first time the diaries have been published in full, they are well knownamong Civil War scholars, and a voice-over from the wartime diary was used repeatedlyin Ken Burns’s famous PBS program The Civil War.Sixteen-year-old Nannie had to come to terms with Union occupation very early inthe war. Amid school assignments, young friendship, social events, worries about hermarital prospects, and tension with her mother, Nannie’s entries also mixed informationabout battles, neighbors wounded in combat, U.S. Colored troops, and lawlessness in thesurrounding countryside. Providing rare detail about daily life in an occupied city, Nannie’sdiary poignantly recounts how she and those around her continued to fight long afterthe war was over—not in battles, but to maintain their lives in a war-torn community.Though numerous women’s Civil War diaries exist, Nannie’s is unique in that she alsorecounts her postwar life and the unexpected financial struggles she and her family experiencedin the post-Reconstruction South. Nannie’s diary may record only one woman’sexperience, but she represents a generation of young women born into a society basedon slavery but who faced mature adulthood in an entirely new world of decreasing farmvalues, increasing industrialization, and young women entering the workforce. Civil Warscholars and students alike will learn much from this firsthand account of coming-of-ageduring the Civil War.Minoa D. Uffelman is an associate professor of history at Austin Peay State University.Ellen Kanervo is professor emerita of communications at Austin Peay State University.Phyllis Smith is retired from the U.S. Army and currently teaches high school science inMontgomery County, Tennessee. Eleanor Williams is the Montgomery County, Tennessee,historian.

    Most Confederate soldiers were not slaveholders themselves, but they were products of the largest and most prosperous slaveholding civilization the world had ever seen, and they sought to maintain clear divisions between black and white, master and servant, free and slave.In Marching Masters Colin Woodward explores not only the importance of slavery in the minds of Confederate soldiers but also its effects on military policy and decision making. Beyond showing how essential the defense of slavery was in motivating Confederate troops to fight, Woodward examines the Rebels' persistent belief in the need to defend slavery and deploy it militarily as the war raged on. Slavery proved essential to the Confederate war machine, and Rebels strove to protect it just as they did Southern cities, towns, and railroads. Slaves served by the tens of thousands in the Southern armies--never as soldiers, but as menial laborers who cooked meals, washed horses, and dug ditches. By following Rebel troops' continued adherence to notions of white supremacy into the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, the book carries the story beyond the Confederacy's surrender.Drawing upon hundreds of soldiers' letters, diaries, and memoirs, Marching Masters combines the latest social and military history in its compelling examination of the last bloody years of slavery in the United States.

    Eyewitness Gettysburg gathers letters, journals, articles and speeches from the people who lived through those legendary three days. Tied together with narrative by historian Rod Gragg and illustrated with a wealth of photographs and images, Eyewitness Gettysburg will transport you to the battlefield, immersing you in the emotional intensity of the struggle of brother against brother for the future of the United States of America.

    However, both approaches have drawbacks. The pure regimental approach - such as in Johnny Reb - can make it difficult to fight a very large battle, while the brigade approach often fails to capture the unique feel of the CW where the actions of one regiment - such as the 20th Maine at Little Round Top - could turn a battle. Across A Deadly Field offers a game system that enables gamers to fight large battles in a relatively compact space, yet maintains the regimental focus and flavor appropriate to the conflict.Across A Deadly Field uses a scale that can be described as a "telescoped" version of Johnny Reb III - with twice the ground and figure scale, and has individual regiments and batteries as the base element of maneuver:- Ground Scale: 1" = 100 yards- Time Scale: 1 turn = 20 minutes- Regiment Scale: Two stands/bases per regiment- Figure Scale: 1 figure = 60 men- Gun scale: 1 gun = 1 batteryThe big advantage of this approach is that the gamer is not required to rebase any figures from his existing Johnny Reb army, allowing for much easier conversion from the older game to Across A Deadly Field. The existing four-stand regiments become two different regiments of two stands each - his miniature army has, for gaming purposes, just doubled. This will hold an appeal for many gamers - they can either recreate smaller engagements in half the space that would once have been needed, or can game huge battles on a table that would once have only accommodated a small skirmish. In essence, Across A Deadly Field offers two games with a single, consistent basing system.