Harry Pfanz, a former historian at Gettysburg National Military Park, has written a definitive account of the second day's brutal combat. He begins by introducing the men and units that were to do battle, analyzing the strategic intentions of Lee and Meade as commanders of the opposing armies, and describing the concentration of forces in the area around Gettysburg. He then examines the development of tactical plans and the deployment of troops for the approaching battle. But the emphasis is on the fighting itself. Pfanz provides a thorough account of the Confederates' smashing assaults -- at Devil's Den and Litle Round Top, through the Wheatfield and the Peach Orchard, and against the Union center at Cemetery Ridge. He also details the Union defense that eventually succeeded in beating back these assaults, depriving Lee's gallant army of victory.Pfanz analyzes decisions and events that have sparked debate for more than a century. In particular he discusses factors underlying the Meade-Sickles controversy and the questions about Longstreet's delay in attacking the Union left. The narrative is also enhanced by thirteen superb maps, more than eighty illustrations, brief portraits of the leading commanders, and observations on artillery, weapons, and tactics that will be of help even to knowledgeable readers. Gettysburg--The Second Day is certain to become a Civil War classic. What makes the work so authoritative is Pfanz' mastery of the Gettysburg literature and his unparalleled knowledge of the ground on which the fighting occurred. His sources include the Official Records, regimental histories and personal reminiscences from soldiers North and South, personal papers and diaries, newspaper files, and last -- but assuredly not least -- the Gettysburg battlefield. Pfanz's career in the National Park Service included a ten-year assignment as a park historian at Gettysburg. Without doubt, he knows the terrain of the battle as well as he knows the battle itself.

    During the next few years he sees, and commits, more than his share of Civil War atrocities. Most of the action takes place in Kansas and Missouri between the rebel Irregulars (bushwhackers) and the Union Jayhawkers, with some civilians caught in the crossfire. The studiedly cool Jake experiences loss (the deaths of his best friend, father and comrades) and love (the best friend's "widow"); he also learns about tolerance from his contact with a nobly reserved black Irregular. There's plenty of hard riding, drinking and shooting, most of it leading to bloodshed. Jake's loyalty to the "secesh" cause is unquestioning and doesn't quite gibe with his growing unease amid the gore, or with his departure in the midst of the war for Texas with wife and child. The prose is occasionally rather pretentious, but this is a generally enjoyable coming-of-age novel by the author of Under the Bright Lights. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc

    HC: Doubleday.

    Drawing extensively on newly unearthed documents, this work provides a gripping battle-by-battle assessment of Hill's role in Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and other battles. 8 pages of photographs.

    Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J. E. B. Stuart, and many lesser commanders. But while the tarnish on such statues has done nothing to color the reputation of those great leaders, there remains one Confederate commander whose tarnished image has nothing to do with bronze monuments. Nowhere in the South does a memorial stand to Lee's intimate friend and second-in-command James Longstreet.In Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant, William Garrett Piston examines the life of James Longstreet and explains how a man so revered during the course of the war could fall from grace so swiftly and completely. Unlike other generals in gray whose deeds are familiar to southerners and northerners alike, Longstreet has the image not of a hero but of an incompetent who lost the Battle of Gettysburg and, by extension, the war itself. Piston's reappraisal of the general's military record establishes Longstreet as an energetic corps commander with an unsurpassed ability to direct troops in combat, as a trustworthy subordinate willing to place the war effort above personal ambition. He made mistakes, but Piston shows that he did not commit the grave errors at Gettysburg and elsewhere of which he was so often accused after the war.In discussing Longstreet's postwar fate, Piston analyzes the literature and public events of the time to show how the southern people, in reaction to defeat, evolved an image of themselves which bore little resemblance to reality. As a product of the Georgia backwoods, Longstreet failed to meet the popular cavalier image embodied by Lee, Stuart, and other Confederate heroes. When he joined the Republican party during Reconstruction, Longstreet forfeited his wartime reputation and quickly became a convenient target for those anxious to explain how a "superior people" could have lost the war. His new role as the villain of the Lost Cause was solidified by his own postwar writings. Embittered by years of social ostracism resulting from his Republican affiliation, resentful of the orchestrated deification of Lee and Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet exaggerated his own accomplishments and displayed a vanity that further alienated an already offended southern populace.Beneath the layers of invective and vilification remains a general whose military record has been badly maligned. Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant explains how this reputation developed--how James Longstreet became, in the years after Appomattox, the scapegoat for the South's defeat, a Judas for the new religion of the Lost Cause.

    Terry L. Jones offers a colorful, highly readable account of this notorious group of soldiers renowned not only for their drunkenness and disorderly behavior in camp but for their bravery in battle. It was this infantry that held back the initial Federal onslaught at First Manassas, made possible General Stonewall Jackson's famed Valley Campaign, contained the Union breakthrough at Spotsylvania's Bloody Angle, and led Lee's last offensive actions at Fort Stedman and Appomattox.Despite all their vices, Lee's Tigers emerged from the Civil War with one of the most respected military records of any group of southern soldiers. According to Jones, the unsavory reputation of the Tigers was well earned, for Louisiana probably had a higher percentage of criminals, drunkards, and deserters in its commands than any other Confederate state. The author spices his narrative with well-chosen anecdotes-among them an account of one of the stormiest train rides in military history. While on their way to Virginia, the enlisted men of Coppens' Battalion uncoupled their officers' car from the rest of the train and proceeded to partake of their favorite beverages. Upon arriving in Montgomery, the battalion embarked upon a drunken spree of harassment, vandalism, and robbery. Meanwhile, having commandeered another locomotive, the officers arrived and sprang from their train with drawn revolvers to put a stop to the disorder. The charge of the Light Brigade, one witness recalled, was surpassed by these irate Creoles.Lee's Tigers is the first study to utilize letters, diaries, and muster rolls to provide a detailed account of the origins, enrollments, casualties, and desertion rates of these soldiers. Jones supplies the first major work to focus solely on Louisiana's infantry in Lee's army throughout the course of the war. Civil War buffs and scholars alike will find Lee's Tigers a valuable addition to their libraries.

    Taking on a formidable array of constitutional scholars, . . . he rebuts their argument with vigor and effectiveness, conclusively demonstrating the legitimacy of the incorporation thesis. . . . A bold, forcefully argued, important study.”—Library Journal

    The text is a blend of documentary sources and terrain descriptions, combining official reports and observations of the commanding officers.

    Lee's four daughters from 1834 to the death of the last surviving daughter in 1918. Using diaries and letters, Coulling follows the women from their idyllic childhood at their ancestral Arlington home through the hardships of war and the turmoil after the war.

    In War So Terrible authors James Lee McDonough and James Pickett Jones have written an extensive, highly readable new history, focusing our attention on the pivotal and fascinating events that led tot he downfall of the "Gate City" and eventually to the Confederacy itself. Throughout, their narrative is evenhanded in its view of the participants of both sides, yet never fails to look to the final outcome as the consequence of all. An Epilogue offers some intriguing insights into the writing of Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell and into the research she undertook in her version of the event that turned the tides of one of the most devastating wars yet fought by man.

    An examination of Lincoln's assassination and the events that preceded it.

    Using demographic, voting, and other statistical analysis, as well as the more traditional methods and sources of political history, William Gienapp demonstrates that the organization of the Republican party was a difficult, complex, and lengthy process, and explains why, after an inauspicious beginning, it ultimately became a potent political force

    Articles, engravings, and maps from Harper's Magazine issues of the 1860s make up a profile of the Civil War, from the firing on Fort Sumter to Lincoln's assassination.

    Assembled from regimental histories as well as diaries, letters, and memoirs from men of both Union and Confederate armies, this is a stirring account of the final and decisive Shenandoah Valley campaign.

    An extensive description of the charge, the complete roster of Gen. George Pickett's Division, a consolidated casualty report, as well as many other significant details that have been painstakingly researched by the Gettysburg park historian of 25 years.

    In December 1865, determined to keep the two white children in his care out of the local orphanage, Isaiah, a freed slave, takes them from Memphis to Cumberland, Mississippi, to find a new home with their uncle, now crippled and impoverished.

    LeeA man of complex dichotomy, Gen. Robert E. Lee, leader of the Confederate States Army, was also a devout Christian, devoted husband, and father of seven. Described as "audacity personified," Lee grieved for those wounded or killed under his command. Indeed, the "Marble Man," was also concerned for the innocent Yankee civilians who were hurt throughout the War for Southern Independence. Upon hearing that Stonewall Jackson's arm had been amputated, Lee said, "He has lost his left arm; but I have lost my right arm."Lee's opinions on life, family and children, women, politics, Yankees, and war are collected here, many taken from his personal letters. On the subject of war, Lee, officer and gentleman, said, "It is well that war is so terrible; we should grow too fond of it."ABOUT THE EDITORDevereaux D. Cannon, Jr., an attorney, is a member of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, the Sons of the Revolution, the Military Order of the Stars and Bars, and the Company of Military Historians. Cannnon is also the author of The Flags of the Confederacy: An Illustrated History, The Flags of the Union: An Illustrated History, and The Flags of Tennessee, all published by Pelican.

    

    s/t: A Historian's Journey to the American Civil War

    Master of vast rice and cotton plantations in South Carolina and Georgia, and delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Major Pierce Butler bequeathed his family and nation a legacy of slavery - an inheritance of immense wealth sown with the seeds of civil war.

    In fact, the worst was yet to come. Her later entries portray the city of Columbia, South Carolina, like much of the South, under the grip of Sherman's army. No reader of this diary is likely to forget the defiant, well-bred Emma, who describes a family's anxieties and brave attempts to get on with life while the Civil War rages around them.In a new foreword to the Bison Books edition, Anne Firor Scott, a professor of history at Duke University whose writings include The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, 1830-1930, rounds out the story of the remarkable Emma LeConte and the life she made after her familiar world ended.