The companion volume to Stars in Their Courses, this marvelous account of Grant's siege of the Mississippi port of Vicksburg continues Foote's narrative of the great battles of the Civil War--culled from his massive three-volume history--recounting a campaign which Lincoln called "one of the most brilliant in the world".

    Lee is a story not of defeat but of triumph—triumph in clearing his family name, triumph in marrying properly, triumph over the mighty Mississippi in his work as an engineer, and triumph over all other military men to become the towering figure who commanded the Confederate army in the American Civil War. But late in life Lee confessed that he "was always wanting something."In this probing and personal biography, Emory Thomas reveals more than the man himself did. Robert E. Lee has been, and continues to be, a symbol and hero in the American story. But in life, Thomas writes, Lee was both more and less than his legend. Here is the man behind the legend.

    Photos. Maps.

    With more than 300 photographs, it provides invaluable information on the dress styles and designs of women's clothing in the 19th century. It also includes descriptions of accessories and construction tips for those involved with reenactments and living history. Now in use extensively in the Hollywood film industry.

     In this powerfully narrated history, Maine historian Tom Desjardin tells the story of the 20th Maine Regiment, the soldiers who fought and won the battle of Little Round Top. This engaging work is the culmination of years of detailed research on the experiences of the soldiers in that regiment, telling the complete story of the unit in the Gettysburg Campaign, from June 21 through July 10, 1863. Desjardin uses more than seventy first-hand accounts to tell the story of this campaign in critical detail. He brings the personal experiences of the soldiers to life, relating the story from both sides and revealing the actions and feelings of the men from Alabama who tried, in vain, to seize Little Round Top. Indeed, ranging from the lowest ranking private to the highest officers, this book explores the terrible experiences of war and their tragic effect. Following the regiment through the campaign enables readers to understand fully the soldiers' feelings towards the enemy, towards citizens of both North and South, and towards the commanders of the two armies. In addition, this book traces the development of the legend of Gettysburg, as veterans of the fight struggle to remember, grasp, and memorialize their part in the largest battle ever fought on the continent. With a new preface and updated maps and illustrations, Stand Firm Ye Boys of Maine offers a compelling account of one of the most crucial small engagements of the Civil War.

    In the 20 years since Journey, Frassanito has uncovered many more never-before published photos of people and places significant to Gettysburg's early history as well as new information on commonly known photos, presented in a clear format.

    The most detailed regimental level account ever written of the critical and often overlooked first day of the Civil War's greatest battle, using primary, first-hand sources almost entirely, many of which are unpublished, and some of which have not been cited before.Gettysburg July 1 combines the most recent scholarly interpretations of the action with original analysis by the author and gives a fresh approach to the battle at the tactical level, with emphasis on the experience and competence of regimental and brigade commanders.

    

    Remarkably few who study it contemplate what came after the armies marched away. Who would care for the tens of thousands of wounded? What happened to the thousands of dead men, horses, and tons of detritus scattered in every direction? How did the civilians cope with their radically changed lives? Gregory Coco's A Strange and Blighted Land. Gettysburg: The Aftermath of a Battle offers a comprehensive account of these and other issues.The late Coco was a park ranger at Gettysburg deeply interested in the battle and what was left in its wake. The Vietnam veteran who wrote well and often about the battle waxes eloquently about the carnage of war, its terrors and pain, its irreplaceable cost in human life and treasure, and the toll it took on the families who lost sons and husbands there.Arranged in a series of topical chapters, A Strange and Blighted Land begins with a tour of the battlefield, mostly through eyewitness accounts, of the death and destruction littering the sprawling landscape. Once the size and scope is exposed to readers, Coco moves on to discuss the dead of Gettysburg, North and South, how their remains were handled, and how and why the Gettysburg National Cemetery was established. The treatment of the wounded, Union and Confederate, was organized chaos. Every house and barn became of hospital or medical station, and the medical and surgical practices of the day were little short of compassionate torture. The author also discusses at length how prisoners were handled and the fate of the thousands of stragglers and deserters left behind once the armies left before concluding with the preservation efforts that culminated in the establishment of the Gettysburg National Military Park in 1895.Coco's prose is gripping, personal, and brutally honest. There is no mistaking where he comes down on the issue: There was nothing pretty or glorious or romantic about a battle--especially once the fighting ended.

    His paintings are unparalleled in evoking Civil War military culture-both on the battlefield and in camp." --Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Confederate War "Don Troiani is unsurpassed at recreating, with absolute fidelity, the decisive moments of great battles." --Stephen W. Sears, author of Chancellorsville In the world of historical painting, Don Troiani stands alone, universally acclaimed for the accuracy, drama, and sensitivity of his depictions of America's past. His Civil War paintings and limited edition prints hang in the finest collections in the country and are noted internationally as well. Don Troiani's Civil War-the first collection of his Civil War art to appear in book form-is a chronological depiction of every face of the war. His most famous and popular works-most of which are in private collections and unavailable for viewing-are all represented here; many rarer pieces, which are not even available in print form, are also included.

    “...the Southern version...” --John Mering, University of Arizona “Johnson presents all of the basic facts that the beginning student or casual reader should know. Yet it is the author’s assertions that make this book as provocative as it is stimulating.... Johnson ... concludes that the horrors of Reconstruction were but a continuation of atrocities perpetuated during the war by Union armies.... How refreshing it is now to see a new conservative approach to Civil War history.” --James I. Robertson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute “Ludwell Johnson’s work is the history that has long been waited for by Southerners (and by their sympathizers, for more numerous than is usually admitted). By marshalling objective information that has long been known but ignored, Johnson has desacralized ‘the glorious war for the Union’ and redeemed the honour of the Confederacy.” --Clyde N. Wilson, University of South Carolina “[Johnson] prefers Lee to Grant as a military commander and Jefferson Davis to Lincoln as a war president; and he sees the South as defending itself against an aggressive North. Here, in short, is a controversial history of the Civil War era. But if learning begins with provocation ... readers of this book will be doubly educated---first in the remarkable amount of information it contains, and second in its challenge to orthodoxy and consequent stimulus to thought.” --Don B. Fehrenbacher, Stanford University “Johnson does a masterful job of integrating the political, social, economic, racial, and other issues ... this is a volume that the knowledgeable Civil War era student will find stimulating and perhaps argumentative.” --E.B. Long, University of Wyoming

    Featuring renowned artist-historian Don Troiani's careful research, painstaking attention to detail, and dramatic style.

    Ironclad ships, mines, and submarines were developed and deployed for the first time to break blockades and capture ports, forever changing the nature of naval warfare.

     Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Spottslyvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg...Theodore Gerrish was at them all with the Twentieth Maine Regiment. His vivid, compassionate, and often humorous telling is from the spot on the field where the minie-balls are thickest and the cannonading is deafening. This is one of the best private-soldier memoirs of the American Civil War in its scope and its minute details. The views Gerrish provides at the end of famous officers as seen from the private soldier's point of view include Grant, Meade, Hooker, Josuah Lawrence Chamberlain, and others with whom he came in contact. Some of the humor: “Chaplain, will you be kind enough to tell me what the two capital letters, B.C., stand for, when they are printed together upon anything?” “O, yes. It means before the birth of our Saviour, previous to the beginning of the Christian era.” He proceeded to give quite a profound theological exposition of the matter, and then inquired, “Why did you ask so unusual a question?” “O, nothin’,” answered the innocent Dick, “only we have seen it stamped on these sheets of hard-tack, and were curious to know why it was there.” Of the African-Americans who fought, Gerrish says: "As these two races march beside each other in the struggle of life, we only ask and demand that those who, in their poverty, did all they could to save the nation and assist its defenders, shall not be deprived of their sacred rights." Front-line letters and diaries of the Civil War bring an immediacy to a long-ago event and connect us to these everyday men and women who lived it. 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.

    The climax of a last-ditch Confederate invasion of Missouri, the battle ended forever the bitter fighting that had devastated the Missouri-Kansas border. First published more than thirty years ago and now available with a new introduction and notes that update the text, Action Before Westport presents the only full account of that most unusual and daring Civil War battle.In addition to incorporating official records, newspaper accounts, letters, diaries, journals, and privately printed records, Monnett consulted several previously undiscovered manuscripts, two of them the work of key Confederate generals in the raid. The result is a classic work that is both immensely readable and impressive in its documentation.

    T. B. Clore, Camp Douglas survivorThe Chicago doctors who inspected the prison in 1863 called Camp Douglas an “extermination camp.” It quickly became the largest Confederate burial ground outside of the South.What George Levy’s meticulous research, including newly discovered hospital records, has uncovered is not a pretty picture. The story of Camp Douglas is one of brutal guards, deliberate starvation of prisoners, neglect of the sick, sadistic torture, murder, corruption at all levels, and a beef scandal reaching into the White House.As a result of the overcrowding and substandard provisions, disease ran rampant and the mortality rate soared. By the thousands, prisoners needlessly died of pneumonia, smallpox, and other maladies. Most were buried in unmarked mass graves. The exact number of those who died is impossible to discern because of the Union's haphazard recordkeeping and general disregard for the deceased.Among the most shocking revelations are such forms of torture as hanging prisoners by their thumbs, hanging them by their heels and then whipping them, and forcing prisoners to sit with their exposed buttocks in the ice and snow.The Confederate Camp Andersonville never saw such gratuitous barbarity.

    He was polished enough to write drumhead and firelight letters of fine literary style. It did not take long for this farm boy turned private to discover the grand design of the conflict in which he was engaged, something which many of the officers leading the armies never did discover.”—Victor Hicken, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society    “When I wrote to you last I was at Madison with no prospect of leaving very soon, but I got away sooner than I expected to.” So wrote James Newton upon leaving Camp Randall for Vicksburg in 1863 with the Fourteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Newton, who had been a rural schoolteacher before he joined the Union army in 1861, wrote to his parents of his experiences at Shiloh, Corinth, Vicksburg, on the Red River, in Missouri, at Nashville, at Mobile, and as a prisoner of war. His letters, selected and edited by noted historian Stephen E. Ambrose, reveal Newton as a young man who matured in the war, rising in rank from private to lieutenant.                 A Wisconsin Boy in Dixie reveals Newton as a young man who grew to maturity through his Civil War experience, rising in rank from private to lieutenant. Writing soberly about the less attractive aspects of army life, Newton's comments on fraternizing with the Rebs, on officers, and on discipline are touched with a sense of humor—"a soldier's best friend," he claimed. He also became sensitive to the importance of political choices. After giving Lincoln the first vote he had ever cast, Newton wrote: "In doing so I felt that I was doing my country as much service as I have ever done on the field of battle."

    Scott isn't a pirate, he's an adventurous twenty-first century test pilot stranded in the past, whose only mission is to get home in one piece. But the more Scott learns about Rachel Ann Warren, the more he's willing to risk the dangers of Civil War Georgia just to get a chance at loving the reckless hellion.

    Knowing that every moment they spend together could be their last, Confederate Captain Jared Knox and Yankee spy Pippa Reid are drawn together by a passion too strong to resist, in spite of their opposing loyalties and deadly danger.

    . . . The admirable work of Colonel Allan . . . raised the level of historical writing on the Confederacy."--Douglas Southall FreemanThis volume unites two classic Civil War campaign studies by the foremost southern historian of the immediate postwar era: History of the Campaign of Gen. T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and The Army of Northern Virginia in 1862. Together they comprise a brilliant, breathtaking chronicle of the high tide of the Confederacy in 1862: Jackson's dazzling generalship in the Valley Campaign; Lee's bold offensive during the Seven Days Battle; the stunning Confederate victory at Second Manassas; Lee's decision to carry the war to enemy territory; the capture of Harper's Ferry; the bitterly fought Battle of Sharpsburg; and the bloody, humiliating Federal defeat at Fredericksburg.New introduction by Robert K. Krick

    A captivating narrative covering the first appearance of both armies in Pennsylvania up to around noon on the morning of July 1, 1863, at Gettysburg.

    This study truly shows the horrible cost inherent in any civil war." --Civil War Courier" A] well written and compelling account of an aspect of the Civil War which has not received sufficient attention." --Southern Historian"Compelling..." --Publishers Weekly" A] fast-paced.. .absorbing discourse... Black Flag is a highly recommended book that transports the reader to the towns and dusty highways of Kansas and Missouri during the Civil War." --Kansas HistoryFrom 1861 to 1865, the region along the Missouri-Kansas border was the scene of unbelievable death and destruction. Thousands died, millions of dollars of property was lost, entire populations were violently uprooted. It was here also that some of the greatest atrocities in American history occurred. Yet in the great national tragedy of the Civil War, this savage warfare has seemed a minor episode.Drawing from a wide array of contemporary documents--including diaries, letters, and first-hand newspaper accounts--Thomas Goodrich presents a hair-raising report of life in this merciless guerrilla war. Filled with dramatic detail, Black Flag reveals war at its very worst, told in the words of the participants themselves. Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers, soldiers and civilians, scouts, spies, runaway slaves, the generals and the guerrillas--all step forward to tell of their terrifying ordeals.From the shocking, sensational massacres at Lawrence, Baxter Springs, and Centralia to the silent terror of a woman at home alone in the Aburnt district, Black Flag is a horrifying day-by-day account of life, death and war, told with unforgettable immediacy.

    Civil War Battlefields presents a detailed, clear narrative describing exactly what visitors can see and do in twelve important battlefield areas covering 22 campaigns and approxiamately 40 separate battles.

    Grant, Thomas, Bragg, William Tecumseh Sherman, Phil Sheridan, William Rosecrans, Pat Cleburne, Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln - all come alive in a narrative that combines furious battle action with behind-the-scenes political maneuvering and astute analysis. Sword's storytelling gifts are augmented by a wealth of contemporary sources - including diaries, letters, and other unpublished material - where generals, officers, soldiers, and politicians offer their perspectives. A saga of war, power, charged rivalries, and small cogs driving great events, Mountains Touched With Fire tells the absorbing story of a turning point in American history.

    Its authors cover the experiences of Irish immigrants, as well as the formation of both Corcoran's Irish Legion and Meagher's Irish Brigade.

    

    Text is by an acclaimed historian.

    Diaries, letters, journals, media reports and more. Beautifully and dramatically illustrated.

    Viewed in the North as a saint of freedom and in the South as the devil incarnate, Brown was a visionary who not only foretold but made inevitable the bloody apocalypse of the Civil War. An intricate mosaic of alternating narrative voices, Bruce Old's Raising Holy Hell is an explosive, multitextured evocation of the prophetic madness of the man who saw an America damned by the sin of slavery.

    

    Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIII THE VALLEY CAMPAIGN '. BATTLE OF FRONT ROYAL. BATTLE OF WINCHESTER. DE- FEAT OF BANKS. JACKSON had covered the distance from Elk Run Valley to Franklin and back to Mount Solon, --more than 200 miles, --in eighteen days, and in the meantime he had fought the battle of McDowell. His men had been worked hard, and the opportunity came for two days' rest before the beginning of the campaign that made Jackson's fame so distinguished in the history of warfare. When he arrived at New Market on May 20, Jackson had in his command some 17,000 men, made up of his own division and the division of Ewell, with eleven batteries of artillery. The cavalry force under Ashby had been reinforced by the Second and Sixth Virginia regiments, under the command of General G. H. Steuart. With this large independent command, Jackson was in a position to make an immediate advance. General Johnston had suggested that the attack should be made on Banks' front at Strasburg, but Jackson, seeing the false position Banks had taken, determined to flank him by way of Front Royal, then get in his rear at Middletown, and block his retreat from Strasburg. He had accurate information of the strength of the Federal force at Front Royal. On May 21 Jackson broke camp at New Market and crossed the Massanutton Mountain through the gap that led direct to Luray. On the next morning Ewell, who had marched from Elk Run Valley, joined Jackson at Luray, from which point the two commands proceeded north and encamped that night on the road between Luray and Front Royal, about ten miles from the latter place. Up to that time neither Banks nor the Federal authorities in Washington had the least intimation of Jackson's position and were preparing for his advance on Strasburg by the.

    Written in 1865, when he was twenty, Stephenson's diary relates his observations and reminiscences in painstaking detail. A private who became a veteran infantryman and artilleryman, Stephenson witnessed the death of Leonidas Polk and shared a blanket with a sleeping General Breckinridge.Ably edited by Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr., Stephenson's vibrant memoirs indeed stand out, as he had hoped, "as though photographed in letters of fire."

    

    A classic work featuring cross-indexed descriptions, locations, and complete inscriptions of all 203 Confederate memorials at Gettysburg, with detailed historical commentary and a complete order of battle for the Army of Northern Virginia.

    When Gil leaves Kansas to fight in the Civil War, he asks Jennifer to care for his son until he returns. Moved by Gil's act of trust, Jennifer finds the strength to overcome her scandalous past and build hopes for a future when Gil returns.

    Late in his life, at a time when many former soldiers, both Union and Confederate, were reliving their memories of that event, Holt penned this memoir, recounting the idyllic life of an affluent southern boy before the war and the exhilarating, sometimes humorous, often terrifying experiences of a common soldier in camp and in battle. This new edition has been expanded to include Holt's never-before-published diary entries from the last year of the war.

    For two hard years it fought with Thomas Meagher's celebrated Irish Brigade of the Army of the Potomac. Though only partially Irish itself, the 116th won an honored place in this famous unit's history by its faithful service in some of the bloodiest campaigns of the war. The mutual respect between the Irish and the 116th was certainly founded on their shared bravery and suffering during the campaigns from Fredericksburg to Petersburg, but it no doubt also owed something to the remarkable Irish colonel, St. Clair Mulholland, who commanded the 116th through most of its battles. Mulholland was a soldier's soldier: disciplined, courageous, caring, and dedicated to the men of his regiment. Wounded four times (once, it was thought, mortally), he time and again rose from his hospital bed to return to command. Winner of the congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at Chancellorsville, he was later brevetted brigadier general and major general for service in the Wilderness and at Petersburg.

    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

    

    In that book he showed how the failures of Davis and his military leaders in the west paved the way for Confederate defeat. In Davis and Lee at War, he concludes his study of Davis as rebel commander-in-chief and shows how the lack of a unified purpose and strategy in the east sealed the Confederacy's fate.Woodworth argues that Davis and Robert E. Lee, the South's greatest military leader, had sharply conflicting views over the proper conduct of the war. Davis was convinced that the South should fight a defensive war, to simply outlast the North's political and popular support for the war. By contrast, Lee and the other eastern generals-notably P.G.T. Beauregard, Gustavus Smith, and Stonewall Jackson-were eager for the offensive. They were convinced that only quick and decisive battlefield victories would prevent the North from eventually defeating them with its overwhelming advantage in men and materials.Davis and Lee, Woodworth shows, shared a mutual respect for each other for most of the war. But it was respect mixed with a stubborn resistance to the other's influence. The result of this tense tug-of-war was Davis's misguided pursuit of a middle ground that gave neither strategy its best chance for success. The war finally ground to a bloody conclusion with Davis as indecisive as ever and virtually blind to how little confidence his generals had in his leadership.Drawing extensively upon the papers of Jefferson Davis and the works of leading Civil War historians, Woodworth places the eastern military campaigns in an entirely new light and expands our understanding of Davis as leader of the Confederacy.

    It includes two first-person presentations by confederados. Chapters recount the confederados' contribution to agriculture, teaching and missionary activities.

    This memoir presents invaluable evidence for in the continuing debates about African-American language of the period and Lincoln's personal life.

    Pickett, C.S.A. written to his wife, Sally during and after the American Civil War. These letters reveal intimate details of Pickett's personal life, as well as his incredible accounts of Civil War battles and personalities. A must-read for any Civil War buff!