Grant learned he had terminal throat and mouth cancer. Destitute and dying, Grant began to write his memoirs to save his family from permanent financial ruin.As Grant continued his work, suffering increasing pain, the American public became aware of this race between Grant's writing and his fatal illness. Twenty years after his respectful and magnanimous demeanor toward Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, people in both the North and the South came to know Grant as the brave, honest man he was, now using his famous determination in this final effort. Grant finished Memoirs just four days before he died in July 1885.Published after his death by his friend Mark Twain, Grant's Memoirs became an instant bestseller, restoring his family's financial health and, more importantly, helping to cure the nation of bitter discord. More than any other American before or since, Grant, in his last year, was able to heal this—the country's greatest wound.

    Early in that fateful year, a second American revolution unfolded, inspiring a new generation to reject their parents’ faith in compromise and appeasement, to do the unthinkable in the name of an ideal. It set Abraham Lincoln on the path to greatness and millions of slaves on the road to freedom.The book introduces us to a heretofore little-known cast of Civil War heroes—among them an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer’s wife, an idealistic band of German immigrants, a regiment of New York City firemen, a community of Virginia slaves, and a young college professor who would one day become president. Adam Goodheart takes us from the corridors of the White House to the slums of Manhattan, from the mouth of the Chesapeake to the deserts of Nevada, from Boston Common to Alcatraz Island, vividly evoking the Union at this moment of ultimate crisis and decision.

    It is our greatest national drama, at once heroic, tragic, and epic—our Iliad, but also our Bible, a story of sin and judgment, suffering and despair, death and resurrection in a “new birth of freedom.” Drawn from letters, diaries, speeches, articles, poems, songs, military reports, legal opinions, and memoirs, The Civil War: The First Year brings together over 120 pieces by more than sixty participants to create a unique firsthand narrative of this great historical crisis.Beginning on the eve of Lincoln’s election in 1860 and ending in January 1862 with the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as secretary of war, signaling a new energy and determination to the Union war effort, this volume collects writing by figures well-known—Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Mary Chesnut, Frederick Douglass, and Lincoln himself among them—and less familiar, like pro-slavery advocate J.D.B. DeBow, Lieutenants Charles B. Haydon of the 2nd Michigan Infantry and Henry Livermore Abbott of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and plantation mistresses Catherine Edmondston of North Carolina and Kate Stone of Mississippi. Together, the selections provide a powerful sense of the immediacy, uncertainty, and urgency of events as the nation was torn asunder. Secessionist appeals by Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown and Alabama legislator Stephen F. Hale give voice to the intense racial fears that helped drive the South toward disunion; Union corporal Samuel J. English and Confederate surgeon Lunsford P. Yandell evoke the shock, confusion, and horror of battle in Virginia and Missouri; memoirist Sallie Brock candidly records the impact of war on Richmond society; and Sam Mitchell recounts his liberation from slavery when the South Carolina Sea Islands fell to Union soldiers.The Civil War: The First Year includes headnotes, a chronology of events, biographical and explanatory endnotes, endpaper maps, and an index.

    Gottfried s bestselling The Maps of Gettysburg (2007) and The Maps of First Bull Run (2009), part of the ongoing Savas Beatie Military Atlas Series.Now available as an ebook short, The Maps of Antietam: The Movement to and the Battle of Antietam, September 14 - 18, 1862 plows new ground in the study of the campaign by breaking down the entire campaign in 63 detailed full page original maps. These cartographic creations bore down to the regimental level, offering students of the campaign a unique and fascinating approach to studying what may have been the climactic battle of the war.The Maps of Antietam: The Movement to and the Battle of Antietam, September 14 - 18, 1862 offers 12 action-sections including: - To Sharpsburg - The Eve of Battle - Antietam: Hooker Opens the Battle- Antietam: Hood s Division Moves up and Attacks - Antietam: Mansfield s XII Corps Enters the Battle - Antietam: Sedgwick s Division Drives East- Antietam: Final Actions on the Northern Front- The Sunken Road - The Lower (Burnside s) Bridge- Burnside Advances on Sharpsburg- A. P. Hill s Division Arrives from Harpers Ferry- Antietam: Evening StalemateGottfried s original maps enrich each map section. Keyed to each piece of cartography is detailed text about the units, personnel, movements, and combat (including quotes from eyewitnesses) that make the Antietam story come alive. This presentation allows readers to easily and quickly find a map and text on virtually any portion of the campaign. Serious students of the battle will appreciate the extensive endnotes and will want to take this book with them on their trips to the battlefield.Perfect for the easy chair or for walking hallowed ground, The Maps of Antietam is a seminal work that, like his earlier Gettysburg and First Bull Run studies, belongs on the bookshelf of every serious and casual student of the Civil War.

    Her passion for forgotten and neglected buildings became a plea for preservation. Gone is a unique pairing of modern photographs and historical novella. Foote offers a heartbreaking look at one man's loss as Union troops burn his home in the last days of the Civil War. Dickerson shares fascinating and haunting photographs, shining a poignant light on the buildings which survived Sherman's burning rampage across the Confederacy, only to fall victim to neglect, apathy and poverty. GONE is a powerfully moving volume that will change how you see the forgotten buildings that hide in obscurity across the Southern landscape.

    Postal Service? Did President Lincoln really age so dramatically during the course of the war, or was a rare disease to blame for the shocking difference in images of him from before and during the war? From overlooked elements, such as the role of weather, health, and high emotions, to the world-changing effect of the rise of female workers, to the many "firsts" including the introduction of standard time, pre-sized clothing, canned goods, toilets, and Santa Claus, "The Untold Civil War" reveals new facets of a seemingly well-known slice of American history, just in time to commemorate its 150th anniversary. Dramatically illustrated with archival images and objects and compelling contemporary photography, this book delivers a surprise on every page: from precious personal mementos to forgotten battle sites; from newly recovered glass-plate negatives that reveal long-obscured photographic details to long-lost documents; this book adds a new dimension to our understanding of the Civil War and is a must-have for anyone with an interest in American history. Six thematic chapters--such as "Characters," "Connections," and "A War of Firsts"--present a short introductory essay followed by approximately 30 self-contained stories that detail surprising, little-known, and fresh aspects of the war. Themes both large and small will be explored and contextualized, painting a fascinating portrait of our national character and showcasing the enduring impact of the Civil War.

    Weiland. In the waning days of the American Civil War, three Confederate cavalrymen and their wounded sergeant are forced to take refuge in a widow’s shack. One more battle looms on the horizon—one more battle none of them want to fight—and they must each make a decision that will influence the rest of their lives: to run or to fight? <

    From the Official Records.

    The September 1864 combat was the largest, longest, and bloodiest battle fought in the Shenandoah Valley. What began about daylight did not end until dusk, when the victorious Union army routed the Confederates. It was the first time Stonewall Jackson's former corps had ever been driven from a battlefield, and their defeat set the stage for the final climax of the 1864 Valley Campaign.The Northern victory was a long time coming. After a spring and summer of Union defeat in the Valley, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant cobbled together a formidable force under Phil Sheridan, an equally redoubtable commander. Sheridan's task was a tall one: sweep Jubal Early's Confederate army out of the bountiful Shenandoah, and reduce the verdant region of its supplies. The aggressive Early had led the veterans of Jackson's Army of the Valley District to one victory after another at Lynchburg, Monocacy, Snickers Gap, and Kernstown.Five weeks of complex maneuvering and sporadic combat followed before the opposing armies ended up at Winchester, an important town in the northern end of the Valley that had changed hands dozens of times over the previous three years. Tactical brilliance and ineptitude were on display throughout the day-long affair as Sheridan threw infantry and cavalry against the thinning Confederate ranks and Early and his generals shifted to meet each assault. A final blow against Early's left flank finally collapsed the Southern army, killed one of the Confederacy's finest combat generals, and planted the seeds of the victory at Cedar Creek the following month.Scott Patchan's vivid prose, which is based upon more than two decades of meticulous research and an unparalleled understanding of the battlefield, is complimented with numerous original maps and explanatory footnotes that enhance our understanding of this watershed battle. Rich in analysis and character development, The Last Battle of Winchester is certain to become a classic Civil War battle study.About the Author: A life-long student of military history, Scott C. Patchan is a graduate of James Madison University in the Shenandoah Valley. He is the author of many articles and books, including The Forgotten Fury: The Battle of Piedmont (1996), Shenandoah Summer: The 1864 Valley Campaign (2007), and Second Manassas: Longstreet's Attack and the Struggle for Chinn Ridge (2011). Patchan serves as a Director on the board of the Kernstown Battlefield Association in Winchester, Virginia, and is a member of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation's Resource Protection Committee.

    The Second Day at Gettysburg: The Attack and Defense of Cemetery Ridge, July 2, 1863, by David L. Shultz and Scott L. Mingus Sr. aptly demonstrates that there is indeed still much to learn about the war's largest and bloodiest battle.Based upon a faulty early-morning reconnaissance, General Robert E. Lee decided to attack up the Emmitsburg Road in an effort to collapse the left flank of General George Meade's Army of the Potomac and decisively defeat it. The effort got underway when General James Longstreet's First Corps troops crushed General Sickles' Peach Orchard salient and turned north and east to drive deeply into the Union rear. A third Confederate division under Richard Anderson, part of A. P. Hill's Third Corps, joined in the attack, slamming one brigade after another into the overstretched Union line stitched northward along the Emmitsburg Road. The bloody fighting stair-stepped its way up Cemetery Ridge, tearing open a large gap in the center of the Federal line that threatened to split the Union army in two. The fate of the Battle of Gettysburg hung in the balance.Despite the importance of the position, surprisingly few Union troops were available to defend the yawning gap on the ridge. Major General Winfield S. Hancock's Second Corps had been reduced to less than one division when his other two were sucked southward to reinforce the collapsing Third Corps front. Reprising Horatio at the Bridge, the gallant commander cobbled together a wide variety of infantry and artillery commands and threw them into the action, refusing to yield even one acre of ground. The long and intense fighting included hand-to-hand combat and the personal heroics of which legends are made.Veteran Gettysburg authors Shultz and Mingus merge their subject matter expertise and keen understanding of the complex undulating terrain and physical features to produce the most detailed study of this action ever written. In addition to demonstrating how the fighting on the far Union left directly affected the combat to come in the center of General Meade's line, the authors also address some of the most commonly overlooked aspects of the fighting: what routes did some of the key units take to reach the front? What could the commanders actually see, and when could they see it? How did the fences, roads, farms, trees, ravines, creeks, and others obstacles directly affect tactical decisions, and ultimately the battle itself? Based upon extensive research and graced with dozens of photographs and detailed original maps, The Second Day at Gettysburg offers a balanced, compelling, and ultimately satisfying account of one of the most overlooked and yet important aspects of the defining battle of the American Civil War.

    Join Gilbert Morris as he explores the life of General Stonewall Jackson through the story of the fictional Yancy Tremayne. Raised among the Cheyenne, Yancy rejects the Amish community his father rejoins and instead studies under Thomas Jackson, a professor at the local military school. When war breaks out, will Yancy further distance himself from the pacifist community and join the fighting? And can he find a home for his heart?

    Thirteen year old Leah becomes a helper in the Union army with her father, who hopes to distribute Bibles to the troops. Fourteen year old Jeff becomes a drummer boy in the Confederate Army and struggles with faith while experiencing personal hardship and tragedy.The series follows Leah, Jeff, family, and friends, as they experience hope and God's grace through four years of war. Included are The Gallant Boys of Gettysburg, The Battle of Lookout Mountain, Encounter at Cold Harbor, Fire Over Atlanta, and Bring the Boys Home.

    A detailed chronological timeline of the war captures the harrowing intensity of 19th-century warfare in firsthand accounts from soldiers, nurses, and front-line journalists. Readers will be enthralled by speech drafts in Lincoln's own hand, quotes from the likes of Frederick Douglass and Robert E. Lee, and portraits of key soldiers and politicians who are not covered in standard textbooks. The Illustrated Timeline's exciting new source material and lucid organization will give Civil War enthusiasts a fresh look at this defining period in our nation's history.

    She wondered if he was looking up at the same stars right now."They're beautiful, aren't they?"Emily started. She hadn't heard Malachi approach."Looks like you can just reach up and pluck one down, maybe set it in a ring," he said. "It'd be the most beautiful piece of jewelry you ever laid eyes on."He pointed to the Big Dipper. "See the last two stars in the bowl of the spoon? They line up just right and point the way to the North Star."Emily had learned that when she was six."When I was little, I remember Mama setting a candle in the window on the nights Daddy would get in late. I slept sound on those nights, confident that beacon was guiding my daddy home."He paused as he contemplated the night sky. "The North Star is kind of like a candle God hung up special to guide His lost children home. Lot of black folks looking up at it right now, directing themselves home to freedom." Ages 10+

    

    Marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, The Atlantic’s special commemorative edition, featuring an introduction by President Barack Obama, showcases some of the most iconic stories from the magazine’s archives—with contributions from some of America’s most important writers, including Mark Twain, Henry James, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott.Through reporting, essays, fiction, and poetry, The Atlantic chronicled the war firsthand—from the country’s deepening divisions in the years leading up to the conflict, to the horrors of the battlefield, to the reshaping of society after the war’s conclusion.

    Postal Service? Did President Lincoln really age so dramatically

    Drawing on diaries, speeches, and newspaper accounts of the six months leading up to the first shots fired on Fort Sumter, And the War Came chronicles the events that tore the nation apart, and delves into the hearts and minds of the men and women who tried in vain to avoid a conflict on American soil. From the controversial election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860 and the failed Crittenden Compromise to the secession of seven Southern states and the election of Jefferson Davis, Malanowski draws indelible portraits of the politicians and soldiers who controlled the country’s destiny. And by unfolding, week by week, the major issues and emotional nuances that led to the Civil War, he sheds new light on the darkest period in American history. Jamie Malanowski has been an editor at Time, Esquire, and Spy, and is the author of the novel The Coup.This is an extraordinary collection, a hugely important deep-dive into the difficult waters of Civil War studies, done with provocative insight, great scholarship and truly original thinking. As we confront the hard truths and persistent relevance of the most important event in American history, on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, it's comforting to have this volume as a guide and a goad. Ken Burns, director and writer of The Civil War “When Jamie Malanowski, whose talent as a writer I came to admire when we worked together at Spy a quarter-century ago, wrote his first few pre-Civil War columns for the The New York Times last year—-terrific accounts of the gloomy prelude to our nation’s bloodiest and most formative chapter—-I wrote to him, underscoring the great impact his work on the period might have. That his articles on the topic would someday be published in a collection—-as they have been done in this inspired e-book-—seemed, even then, the natural course of action. The list of Civil War historians is frightfully long. But the truly able journalists among them are exceptionally few. And Jamie Malanowski, as readers of And the War Came will quickly discover, is not only on that short list, but perhaps somewhere very near the top.”Graydon Carter, Editor-in-Chief, Vanity Fair“Jamie Malanowski brings a historian’s eye and a journalist’s ear to deliver a breathtaking ride through America’s most perilous year. Reading And the War Came is like re-living the rise of Lincoln and the fall of national unity in real time.”Harold Holzer, Chairman, Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation"The Civil War is one of those events we think we know cold. But I guarantee you that Jamie Malanowski's riveting,day-by-day chronicle of the lead-up to war will fill gaps you didn't know you had, deepening and enriching your sense of the most politically consequential six months in American history. “And the War Came” is the next best thing to time travel."Kurt Andersen, author of Heyday “History happens, especially during national crises, in disjointed, unpredictable, and often utterly surprising ways. Jamie Malanowski's ‘And the War Came,’ based on the New York Times's marvelous ‘Disunion’ series, demonstrates with verve and riveting detail, how Americans collapsed into secession and war in 1860-61. Malanowski writes with informed clarity; this book will be a lasting record of our own commemorative moment as well as an enduring work of good history.”David W.

    Of these changes, none was more important than Emancipation. Besides freeing nearly 4 million slaves, it brought agricultural wage labor to a reluctant South and gave a vote to black adult males in the former slave states. It also offered former slaves of both sexes new opportunities in education and property ownership. Just as striking were the effects of the war on the United States Army. From late 1862 to the spring of 1865, the federal government accepted more than 180,000 black men as soldiers, something it had never done before on such a scale. Known collectively as the United States Colored Troops and organized in segregated regiments led by white officers, some of these soldiers guarded army posts along major rivers; others fought Confederate raiders to protect Union supply trains; and still others took part in major operations like the siege of Petersburg and the battle of Nashville. After the war, many of the black regiments garrisoned the former Confederacy to enforce federal Reconstruction policy."Freedom by the Sword" tells the story of these soldiers' recruitment, organization, and service. Because of the book's broad focus on every theater of the war and its concentration on what black soldiers actually contributed to Union victory, this volume stands alone among histories of the U.S. Colored Troops. Illustrations, maps, bibliographical note, abbreviations, index.

    It's an immense subject-a battle between freedom and slavery, waged across the breadth of the still-expanding nation over a period of four years-and TIME has created an oversized volume to tell the story in the grandstyle it deserves. To bring the tale to life, the book focuses on little-seen photographs and original artifacts from the period: sketches from soldier's diaries, unusual and rare military and political memorabilia. And it brings us face-to-face with those who lived through the period, presenting scores of excerpts from the letters and diaries of soldiers, offi cers and statesmen. Yet the book also captures the full sweep of the war, telling the tale in chronological fashion, as the war evolves from a quiet beginning to become a mammoth struggle that consumed the divided nation. Here are the great generals: Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson. Here are the great battles, from Bull Run and Antietam to Gettysburg and Shiloh. Here are the latest discoveries and analysis by scholars of the conflict. And here are fascinating, informative graphics that reveal the war in fresh, clarifying detail. Here is a larger-than-life conflict, reported and illuminated in a larger-than-life oversized edition from TIME.

    From the Plain at West Point, through the Mexican War, to the carnage of Shiloh. They were fighting for country, for a way of life and for family. Classmates carried more than rifles and sabers into battle. They had friendships, memories, children and wives. They had innocence lost, promises broken and glory found. Duty, Honor, Country is history told both epic and personal so we can understand what happened, but more importantly feel the heart-wrenching clash of duty, honor, country and loyalty. And realize that sometimes, the people who changed history, weren't recorded by it. This book is big, almost twice the length of my usual books, because the story demands a large scale. Our story starts in 1840, in Benny Havens tavern, just outside post limits of the United States Military Academy. With William Tecumseh Sherman, a classmate, a plebe, and Benny Havens' daughter coming together in a crucible of honor and loyalty. And on post, in the West Point stables, where Ulysses S. Grant and a classmate are preparing to saddle the Hell-Beast, a horse with which Grant would eventually set an academy record, and both make fateful decisions that will change the course of their lives and history. The story ranges from West Point; to a plantation in Natchez, the richest city in the United States where cotton was king; to the only mutiny in the United States Navy; to St. Louis where Kit Carson is preparing to depart on a famous expedition to the west with Fremont that would eventually bring California into the Union; to Mexico, where the United States Army suffered its highest casualty rate to this day and brought most of the western United States into the Union; to the founding of the Naval Academy; to John Brown's hanging; to the firing on Fort Sumter; through First Bull Run; the first battle of ironclads, the Monitor and Virginia; and culminating in the epic battle of Shiloh, where the United States had more casualties in one battle than in all previous wars combined and the face of warfare changed forever.

    When the Union Army invades Tennessee, Clarissa Wakefield's antebellum mansion becomes a Confederate hospital. Philip is placed in charge and against propriety she stays on and helps nurse the wounded. Clarissa's husband is a Confederate soldier and Philip's fiancée waits for him in Oswego but the fire between them soon rages out of control. As the opposing armies fight for possession of Chattanooga, Clarissa and Philip face their own battle. Caught in the passions of war and love, with hurt inevitable either way, will they be faithful to their vows or listen to their hearts?

    In fact, the fight was a decisive Federal victory and important turning point in the campaign, as historian Brian Matthew Jordan convincingly argues in his fresh interpretation Unholy Sabbath: The Battle of South Mountain in History and Memory, September 14, 1862.

    RECOMMENDED READING ORDER:TEAR IN TIME (book 1): After a traumatic loss on the operating table, Dr.David Warner enters an elevator and descends into the American Civil War (1862). That one death changes the world forever.PRISONER IN TIME (book 2): Dr. Warner must travel back in time once again, this time to save a patient and his troubled brother.Tear in Time Synopsis:Dr. David Warner descends in a hospital elevator, and is transported in time to the Civil War, 1862.In order to survive, he must gain the trust of Dr. Jebadiah Morgan, an old Civil War surgeon, who is as skeptical of David as he is intrigued. Demonstrating advanced surgical skills in difficult primitive conditions, he wins Dr. Morgan's confidence and they soon become close friends.David's experience with such a brutal war is shocking and fearful. While in a desperate search to return home, David is thrust into the infamous Battle of Antietam. Overrun and greatly outnumbered, David reluctantly assumes command of his battalion and turns the tide of their capture.Having narrowly avoided death at Antietam, David is forced into command once more: the Battle of Gettysburg. Alongside General George Armstrong Custer, the two develop and execute an ingenious plan to change the outcome of the battle and ultimately, the war.As David nears the end of his journey, he is gravely wounded. With time running out, his survival depends on the future.For those interested in updates on book releases, please sign up for my news letter: ow.ly/gqFbo

    Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman in a handsome, newly designed case. An ailing Grant wrote his Personal Memoirs to secure his family's future. In doing so, the Civil War's greatest general won himself a unique place in American letters. John Keegan has called it "perhaps the most revelatory autobiography of high command to exist in any language." The Library of America's edition of Grant's Memoirs includes 175 of his letters to Lincoln, Sherman, and his wife, Julia, among others. Hailed as a prophet of modern war and condemned as a harbinger of modern barbarism, William T. Sherman is the most controversial general of the Civil War. "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it," he wrote in fury to the Confederate mayor of Atlanta, and his memoir is filled with dozens of such wartime exchanges and a fascinating account of the famous march through Georgia and the Carolinas.

    Lee’s army out of Maryland in September 1862 after the Battle of Antietam, but President Lincoln and his War Department wanted the army to continue going after the Army of Northern Virginia after it retreated back into Virginia. When George B. McClellan refused to do it, Lincoln fired him and installed Ambrose E. Burnside as the new commander. Burnside, who didn’t believe himself capable of commanding the Army of the Potomac, only took the job because he was told Fighting Joe Hooker would get the spot if he refused. With Washington urging Burnside to advance against Lee, Burnside launched an ill fated operation across the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg in December 1862. From December 12-13, Burnside struggled to get his army across the river while it was under fire from Confederates in Fredericksburg. Things only got worse on the day of the battle. With the Union’s left unable to dislodge Stonewall Jackson’s troops on the Confederates’ right flank, Burnside’s army conducted piecemeal charges against well fortified Confederate positions on Marye’s Heights just outside of Fredericksburg. As the Northern troops were slaughtered time and again on the heights, Lee turned to Corps commander James Longstreet and said, “It is good that war is so terrible; otherwise we would grow too fond of it.” As Northern soldiers laid freezing on the field that night, the Northern Lights made a rare appearance. Southern soldiers interpreted it as a favorable sign from God and mentioned them frequently in their diaries, while Northern soldiers who saw something far less divine sparsely mentioned them. One of the most prominent generals during and after the war was James Longstreet, Lee’s senior corps leader for many years in the Army of Northern Virginia. Longstreet played critical roles in battles like Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, and Antietam, and he wrote voluminously after the war defending his war record against critics. After the war, he wrote an account of the Battle of Fredericksburg that was eventually published in the well known Battles & Leaders series. This edition of Battles & Leaders of the Civil War: The Battle of Fredericksburg is specially formatted with a Table of Contents and pictures of Antietam’s important commanders.

    Grant, intent on reducing the Confederate citadel at Vicksburg, began looking for ways to reduce the fortress and return control of the mightiest of American rivers to northern control. Downstream in New Orleans, General Nathaniel P. Banks received orders to cooperate however he could in this effort, but faced challenges of his own, blocked by the Confederate bastion at Port Hudson. The problem facing Union war planners seemed nearly intractable.Both of these Confederate positions had key vulnerabilities. Both garrisons depended heavily on supplies thrown across the Mississippi from sources in Louisiana and Texas, and the task fell to the United States Navy to cut off this stream of cattle and corn. The ensuing campaign to interdict these rations turned into one of the most massive raids in Civil War history, involving tens of thousands of Union foot soldiers and cavalry and scores of warships and transports, plunging Louisiana into the pit of a destructive war that wrecked everything in its path. When General Banks launched his campaign up Bayou Teche and the Atchafalaya River in Louisiana, Confederates in the region faced the greatest challenge yet to their claims of independence and experienced for the first time the true devastation of war and the consequences of rebellion.      Thunder Across the Swamp: The Fight for the Lower Mississippi, February–May 1863 is the second of the four books in Donald S. Frazier’s highly acclaimed Louisiana Quadrille. In this fast-paced narrative, readers ride along with gunboat skippers in duels along the Mississippi, trot along with cavalrymen as they slash their way through enemy lines, experience the dust and confusion of infantry assaults, and mourn with Louisiana, Texas, and New England families that watch their property and families destroyed by civil war. Most students of this national calamity may believe they know well the campaigns on the Mississippi; Thunder Across the Swamp promises to fill in the less well-known story of the fight to control the west bank during the crucial campaigns of 1863.

    Klingel, is a historical fiction novel for young adults about a boy, a dog, and their search for peace in the first years of the Civil War. Avery and his dog, Gunner, have a good life in Kanawha Valley a loving family, a prosperous farm, and a warm community of friends. But when the long unrest between the North and the South ignites into war, Avery's peaceful world is shattered. His father, brother, and uncle leave home, each drawn away by the war. Soon Avery and Gunner must begin a dangerous journey that will take them across the paths of people on both sides of the struggle.

    The Army of Tennessee under it's gallant commander John Bell Hood have a chance to reverse the Confederacy's sinking fortunes. With veteran troops, he plans to strike into Tennessee where he will capture Nashville and invade the northern states. General Sherman has taken the best troops with him on his famous 'March to the Sea.' George Thomas, the Federal commander is forced to defend Tennessee with scattered forces and green troops.The Confederate's move into Tennessee almost forty-thousand strong. The Federal's are in a race to concentrate enough men to save Nashville. Die Like Men will take the reader through the invasion from Florence, Alabama to Nashville and provide insight into the colorful personalities of the leading participants. This is a must read for any fan of the American Civil War.

    But as a Southerner, she finds no welcome in Ohio. . .except from a returning Yankee soldier. Daniel Kirby arrives home after General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, weary from war. He longs to return to teaching at a university but feels a pull to remain with his family’s farm. . .and to be near the captivating Southern young lady staying with his aunt. Midst the tumultuous aftermath of war, will Daniel and Katherine allow God to heal their hearts and bind them together as one?

    But honor and duty push him to leave his comfortable life and answer the call from Abraham Lincoln to fight for his country. This “citizen soldier” learns quickly that war is more than the battle on the field. Long marches under extreme conditions, illness, and disillusionment challenge at every turn. Faith seems lost in a blur of smoke and blood … and death. Michael’s only desire is to kill as many Confederate soldiers as he can so he can go home. He coldly counts off the rebels that fall to his bullets. Until he is brought up short by a dying man holding up his Bible. It’s in the heat of battle at Gettysburg and the solemn aftermath that Michael begins to understand the grave cost of the war upon his soul. Here the journey really begins as he searches for the man he was and the faith he once held so dearly. With the help of his beloved wife, Jesse Ann, he takes the final steps towards redemption and reconciliation. Using first-hand accounts of the 14th Connecticut Infantry, Karl Bacon has crafted a detailed, genuine and compelling novel on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Intensely personal and accurate to the times, culture, and tragedy of the Civil War, An Eye for Glory may change you in ways you could have never imagined as well.

    Grant's memoir with a forward written by David hardin

    This book is a unique record of magnified photos showcasing what "real" people wore in this hugely popular time period.

    Life isn't easy in the South in 1860. Bree Montgomery's life is set in turmoil by the tragic deaths of her parents. Forced to leave her friends and home in the big city of Charleston, she moves to the small rural town of Willstown, Alabama, to live with her aunt. She now lives so far out in the country that there's not a neighbor in sight. She is convinced that her life is ruined. That is, until she meets the gorgeous, Gabriel March, a young man with a stubborn will and a fiery temper to match her own. A battle of wills is fought as the two stubborn personalities collide. In the aftermath, they are left with a love so strong that the only thing that can separate them is...a Civil War. Bree's life is thrown into turmoil again. Will her will be strong enough to survive it? Or will she be thrown into a Desire Everlasting?

    He was in command of a battalion at the Battle of Little Bighorn, and some say that his controversial actions during the battle may have contributed to Custer’s disastrous defeat. In Harvest of Barren Regrets, Charles K. Mills explores Benteen’s complex personality and life as a career army man during one of the most violent and compelling periods in U.S. military history. He views Benteen as misjudged by history, a man forced to shoulder much of the blame for events far beyond his influence or control. As Mills says at the end of this wonderful biography, “There are no monuments to Frederick William Benteen today. He remains as he lived: a rather obscure supporting actor who appeared briefly on center stage in a well-known American history drama and then quietly faded away. It was his misfortune to live largely unknown and to die largely misunderstood.”

    The Civil War soon swept their other brothers, William, Thomas and Andrew, as well as brother-in-law Fenton Hall into service. By the war's end, only Daniel survived. The extensive collection of letters the Boyds left behind, assembled for the first time, details their experiences across almost every theater of the war and offers commentary on many aspects of soldier life--from illness, death, and religion to friendly fire, desertion, and politics. Few families sacrificed so much to the Confederate cause as the Boyds.

    Glatthaar provides a comprehensive narrative and statistical analysis of many key aspects of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Serving as a companion to Glatthaar's General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse, this book presents Glatthaar's supporting data and major conclusions in extensive and extraordinary detail.While gathering research materials for General Lee's Army, Glatthaar compiled quantitative data on the background and service of 600 randomly selected soldiers--150 artillerists, 150 cavalrymen, and 300 infantrymen--affording him fascinating insight into the prewar and wartime experience of Lee's troops. Soldiering in the Army of Northern Virginia presents the full details of this fresh, important primary research in a way that is useful to scholars and students and appeals to anyone with a serious interest in the Civil War. While confirming much of what is believed about the army, Glatthaar's evidence challenges some conventional thinking in significant ways, such as showing that nearly half of all Lee's soldiers lived in slaveholding households (a number higher than previously thought), and provides a broader and fuller portrait of the men who served under General Lee.

    Connery as he recounts the notable events and battles that occurred in Northern Virginia in 1861 after the firing on Fort Sumter. Beginning in May 1861, both the Confederate and Union armies assembled in Northern Virginia as politicians were deciding how and where the Civil War would be fought. Several months passed as both armies maneuvered and attempted to complete reconnaissance on the other. During this early time, the first officers on both sides were killed; Mount Vernon was declared neutral territory; the Confederate battle flag was adopted; and the first real battles of the war took place in Northern Virginia.

    This allowed army officers to arrest and indefinitely detain persons who were interfering with military operations in the area. When John Merryman, a wealthy Marylander suspected of burning bridges to prevent the passage of U.S. troops to Washington, was detained in Fort McHenry, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Roger Taney, declared the suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional and demanded Merryman's immediate release. Lincoln defied Taney's order, offering his own forceful counter-argument for the constitutionality of his actions. Thus the stage was set for one of the most dramatic personal and legal confrontations the country has ever witnessed.The Body of John Merryman is the first book-length examination of this much-misunderstood chapter in American history. Brian McGinty captures the tension and uncertainty that surrounded the early months of the Civil War, explaining how Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus was first and foremost a military action that only subsequently became a crucial constitutional battle. McGinty's narrative brings to life the personalities that drove this uneasy standoff and expands our understanding of the war as a legal--and not just a military, political, and social--conflict. The Body of John Merryman is an extraordinarily readable book that illuminates the contours of one of the most significant cases in American legal history--a case that continues to resonate in our own time.

    From Battles & Leaders.

    But it didn't. Rethinking the Judicial Settlement of Reconstruction demolishes the conventional wisdom - and puts a constructive alternative in its place. Pamela Brandwein unveils a lost jurisprudence of rights that provided expansive possibilities for protecting blacks' physical safety and electoral participation, even as it left public accommodation rights undefended. She shows that the Supreme Court supported a Republican coalition and left open ample room for executive and legislative action. Blacks were abandoned, but by the president and Congress, not the Court. Brandwein unites close legal reading of judicial opinions (some hitherto unknown), sustained historical work, the study of political institutions, and the sociology of knowledge. This book explodes tired old debates and will provoke new ones.

    Grant made a meteoric rise to the top of the Union war effort. Illinois. On April 6, 1862 a determined full-force attack from the Confederate Army took place at the Battle of Shiloh; the objective was to destroy the entire Western Union offensive once for all. Over 44,699 Confederate troops led by Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard, vigorously attacked five divisions of Grant’s army bivouacked nine miles south at Pittsburgh Landing. Aware of the impending Confederate attack, Union troops sounded the alarm and readied for battle, however, no defensive entrenchment works had been made. The Confederates struck hard and repulsed the Union Army towards the Tennessee River. Grant and Maj. General William T. Sherman were able to rally the troops and make a stand. After receiving reinforcement troops from Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell and Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace's missing division, Grant succeeded in stabilizing the Army of the Tennessee. Confederate General Johnson was killed in the battle on the first day of fighting, and on the second day, Grant launched a costly counter-offensive and pursuit that forced the Confederate Army, now under P.G.T. Beauregard, to retreat to Corinth. The battle was the costliest in the Civil War up until this time, having 23,746 combined Union and Confederate casualties. The carnage at Shiloh demonstrated to both Confederates and Unionists that the Civil War was both very serious and extremely costly. Shiloh was the first battle in the American Civil War with tremendous casualties and Grant received much criticism for keeping the Union Army bivouacked rather than entrenched. As a result, Grant's superior Maj. Gen Henry Halleck demoted him to second-in-command of a newly formed 120,000-strong Union Army. Grant was ready to resign from command when Maj. Gen. Sherman talked him into remaining in Halleck's army. Grant would go on to restore his reputation and become the North’s greatest war hero, eventually coming to command all armies and force Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, ending the war for all intents and purposes. After the war, he would write what is considered the best personal memoirs of the war as well. He also wrote an account of the Battle of Shiloh that was eventually published in the well known Battles & Leaders series. This edition of Battles & Leaders of the Civil War: The Battle of Shiloh is specially formatted with a Table of Contents and pictures of Shiloh’s important commanders.

    Tourgee's regimental history of the 105th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was first published in 1896. Tourgee, a lawyer and outspoken abolitionist from Williamsfield, Ohio, is best known for his semi-fictional novels about the reconstruction of the South following the Civil War, A Fool's Errand and Bricks Without Straw. Both critically acclaimed best sellers, the novels catapulted Tourgee and his relentless efforts to secure equality for African Americans into the national spotlight.The Story of a Thousand also received a warm reception upon its publication, although it never achieved the level of recognition as his other works. Written at the behest of his former comrades in the 105th Ohio, The Story of a Thousand draws on Tourgee's own wartime papers, as well as diaries, letters, and recollections of other veterans, to detail the remarkable story of the regiment during its campaigns in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and Sherman's March to the Sea. Tourgee concentrates on the lives and experiences of the enlisted soldiers, describing the backgrounds of the men and how they rallied around the Union flag as citizen soldiers and also on discussions about the role of slavery as the impetus of the war. Tourgee's concern for the common soldier prefigures the scholarship of twentieth-century historians, such as Bell Irvin Wiley, who devoted attention to the men in the ranks rather than the generals and politicians in charge.Historian Peter Luebke revives Albion W. Tourgee's lost testimony of the war in this new edition of The Story of a Thousand. He includes an index and a scholarly introduction that draws on extensive research to describe the writing, production, and reception of the book. Luebke also places the work in the context of recent Civil War scholarship. The inclusion of famed illustrator Frederic Remington's engravings, which accompanied the book's excerpts appearing in The Cosmopolitan magazine in 1894 and 1895, also enhances the text.Scholars, students, and enthusiasts of the Civil War and Ohio history are sure to enjoy this military account by one of Reconstruction's harshest and most articulate critics.

    Complete with new discoveries and enduring mysteries, Manassas Battlefields Then & Now is a groundbreaking work that lays out more than 125 years of historic photography at Bull Run and sets the stage for the ongoing study and enjoyment of these precious photographic resources. From Manassas Junction to Centreville, from Young’s Branch to Bull Run and from the Deep Cut to Henry Hill, travel the areas of conflict in a manner available nowhere else.

    Most of the community is participating in the East Tennessee Historical Society's Civil War contest and Jane is no exception. She unwittingly discovers a clue to the murder while searching for clues from the past. As the killer draws near, Jane must learn the truth before she loses the contest and her life.

    Indeed, Vicksburg is fascinating on many levels. A focal point of both western armies, the Federal campaign of maneuver that finally isolated the Confederates in the city was masterful. The Navy’s contribution to the Federal victory was significant. The science of the fortifications and siege tactics are rich in detail. The human drama of Vicksburg’s beleaguered civilian population is compelling, and the Confederate cavalry dashes that first denied the Union victory were thrilling. But perhaps more than any other factor, the key to the Federal victory at Vicksburg was simply better leadership. It is this aspect of the campaign that Leadership Lessons: The Campaigns for Vicksburg, 1862–1863 seeks to explore.The first section of this book familiarizes the reader with the challenges, characteristics, and styles associated with leadership during the Civil War in general. It also outlines the Vicksburg Campaign by explaining the strategic significance of the Mississippi River and Vicksburg, detailing the opposing forces and the terrain, discussing the failed attempts to capture Vicksburg over the winter of 1862–63, and tracing the brilliant campaign of maneuver and logistics that allowed Grant to ultimately lay siege and win a Federal victory. The second section of the book contains 30 “leadership vignettes” that span the actions of the most senior leaders down to those of individual soldiers. Each vignette focuses the campaign overview to the specific situation in order to provide appropriate context, explains the action in terms of leadership lessons learned, and concludes with a short list of “take-aways” to crystallize the lessons for the reader.The human drama of Vicksburg involved such traits as daring, persistence, hesitation, raw courage, vascillation, self-confidence, and over-reliance—all with a great prize at stake. This study of many of the Civil War’s most famous commanders who vied for the Rebel “Gibraltar on the Mississippi” reveals combat on a wide scale, but more importantly lessons on decision-making that still apply to this day.

    Throughout the Civil War, Grand Traverse soldiers fought and died in major battles and forgotten skirmishes, earning for the region a compelling military history in the most crucial and deadly of American conflicts. All who feel a connection to Northern Michigan should read this book.

    Lee's surrender at Appomattox, one final, dramatic confrontation occurred between the Lee family and the United States government. In The Last Battle of the Civil War, Anthony J. Gaughan recounts the fascinating saga of United States v. Lee, known to history as the Arlington Case.Prior to the Civil War, Mary Lee, Robert E. Lee's wife, owned the estate that Arlington National Cemetery rests on today. After the attack on Fort Sumter, however, the Union army seized the Lees' Arlington home and converted it into a national cemetery as well as a refugee camp for runaway slaves.In 1877 George Washington Custis Lee, Robert and Mary's eldest son, filed suit demanding that the federal government pay the Lees just compensation for Arlington. In response, the Justice Department asserted that sovereign immunity barred Lee and all other private plaintiffs from bringing Fifth Amendment takings cases. The courts, the government claimed, had no jurisdiction to hear such lawsuits.In a historic ruling, the Supreme Court rejected the government's argument. As the majority opinion explained, All the officers of the government, from the highest to the lowest, are creatures of the law and are bound to obey it. The ruling made clear that the government was legally obligated by the Fifth Amendment to pay just compensation to the Lees. The Court's ruling in United States v. Lee affirmed the principle that the rule of law applies equally to ordinary citizens and high government officials. As the justices emphasized, the Constitution is not suspended in wartime and government officials who violate the law are not beyond the reach of justice. Ironically, the case also represented a watershed on the path of sectional reconciliation. By ruling in favor of the Lee family, the justices demonstrated that former Confederates would receive a fair hearing in the federal courts.Gaughan provides a riveting account of the Civil War's final battle, a struggle whose outcome became a significant step on the path to national reunion.

    *Southern men turn their backs on their secessionist neighbors and form their own Union regiment. *A slave-owning minister heads an underground pro-Union movement. Cracks in the Confederacy usually don't show up in American History 101 or even 102. But they are what author Don Umphrey discovered when conducted research on his great-grandfather's involvement in the Civil War. Hostilities grew as these Union-minded southerners balked at serving in the Confederate army. Some donned Union uniforms and subsequently paid the ultimate price for their convictions. "As I shared tidbits of my research findings with friends, most were surprised to hear conventional knowledge about the Civil War turned upside down." -- Author Don Umphrey from the Introduction.

    E. B. Stuart and Stonewall Jackson, but no individual has had a greater elevation to divine status than John Pelham, remembered as the “Gallant Pelham.” An Alabama native, Pelham left West Point for service in the Confederacy and distinguished himself as an artillery commander in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Lee is reported to have said of him, “It is glorious to see such courage in one so young!” Blond, blue-eyed, and handsome, Pelham’s modest demeanor charmed his contemporaries, and he was famously attractive to women. He was killed in action at the battle of Kelly’s Ford in March of 1863, at twenty-four years of age, and reportedly three young women of his acquaintance donned mourning at the loss of the South’s “beau ideal.” Maxwell’s work provides the first complete, deeply researched biography of Pelham, perhaps Alabama’s most notable Civil War figure, and explains his enduring attraction.

    Noted historian Steven E. Woodworth tells the story of what many regard as the defining event in United States history. While covering all theaters of war, he emphasizes the importance of action in the region between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River in determining its outcome. Woodworth argues that the Civil War had a distinct purpose that was understood by most of its participants: it was primarily a conflict over the issue of slavery. The soldiers who filled the ranks of the armies on both sides knew what they were fighting for. The outcome of the war after its beginnings at Fort Sumter to the Confederate surrender four years later was the result of the actions and decisions made by those soldiers and millions of other Americans. Written in clear and compelling fashion, This Great Struggle is their story and ours."

    But the Union had the manpower, the money, the materiel, and, most important, the generals. Although the South had arguably the best commander in the Civil War in Robert E. Lee, the North's full house beat their one-of-a-kind. Flawed individually, the Union's top officers nevertheless proved collectively superior across a diverse array of battlefields and ultimately produced a victory for the Union.Now acclaimed author Albert Castel brings his inimitable style, insight, and wit to a new reconsideration of these generals. With the assistance of Brooks Simpson, another leading light in this field, Castel has produced a remarkable capstone volume to a distinguished career. In it, he reassesses how battles and campaigns forged a decisive Northern victory, reevaluates the generalship of the victors, and lays bare the sometimes vicious rivalries among the Union generals and their effect on the war.From Shiloh to the Shenandoah, Chickamauga to Chattanooga, Castel provides fresh accounts of how the Union commanders--especially Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, and Meade but also Halleck, Schofield, and Rosecrans--outmaneuvered and outfought their Confederate opponents. He asks of each why he won: Was it through superior skill, strength of arms, enemy blunders, or sheer chance? What were his objectives and how did he realize them? Did he accomplish more or less than could be expected under the circumstances? And if less, what could he have done to achieve more--and why did he not do it? Castel also sheds new light on the war within the war: the intense rivalries in the upper ranks, complicated by the presence in the army of high-ranking non-West Pointers with political wagons attached to the stars on their shoulders.A decade in the writing, Victors in Blue brims with novel, even outrageous interpretations that are sure to stir debate. As certain as the Union achieved victory, it will inform, provoke, and enliven sesquicentennial discussions of the Civil War.

    COMPELLING letters from those who were in the midst of battle are combined with RARE images and classic Civil War photographs, presented in new levels of captivating detail. The Civil War, a visual history, takes you on an incredible JOURNEY through the war that tore a young nation apart.In this history we have included letters, speeches and memoirs that capture the emotions of those who experienced the Civil War along with images from photographers, sketch artists and reporters who braved the dangers of the battlefield to provide a visual record of these momentous events. Together, they give us more thorough understanding of a war that cost over 600,000 lives and defined the course of American history.The Civil War: A Visual History showcases rare images from America's greatest internal conflict. Newly discovered artifacts and recently enhanced classic photographs from the front lines are brought to life through the words of soldiers and civilians who were there. From the battlefield to the home front, The Civil War: A Visual History grips the reader with stunning detail and poignant eyewitness accounts.

    McClelland, a member of the 155th Pennsylvania Infantry in the Civil War, witnessed some of the war’s most pivotal battles during his two and a half years of Union service. Death and destruction surrounded this young soldier, who endured the challenges of front line combat in the conflict Lincoln called “the fiery trial through which we pass.” Throughout his time at war, McClelland wrote to his family, keeping them abreast of his whereabouts and aware of the harrowing experiences he endured in battle. Never before published, McClelland’s letters offer fresh insights into camp life, battlefield conditions, perceptions of key leaders, and the mindset of a young man who faced the prospect of death nearly every day of his service. Through this book, the detailed experiences of one soldier—examined amidst the larger account of the war in the eastern theater—offer a fresh, personal perspective on one of our nation’s most brutal conflicts. Your Brother in Arms follows McClelland through his Civil War odyssey, from his enlistment in Pittsburgh in the summer of 1862 and his journey to Washington and march to Antietam, followed by his encounters in a succession of critical battles: Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania Court House, the North Anna River, Petersburg, and Five Forks, Virginia, where he was gravely injured. McClelland’s words, written from the battlefield and the infirmary, convey his connection to his siblings and his longing for home. But even more so, they reflect the social, cultural, and political currents of the war he was fighting. With extensive detail, Robert C. Plumb expounds on McClelland’s words by placing the events described in context and illuminating the collective forces at play in each account, adding a historical outlook to the raw voice of a young soldier.Beating the odds of Civil War treatment, McClelland recovered from his injury at Five Forks and was discharged as a brevet-major in 1865—a rank bestowed on leaders who show bravery in the face of enemy fire. He was a common soldier who performed uncommon service, and the forty-two documents he and his family left behind now give readers the opportunity to know the war from his perspective. More than a book of battlefield reports, Your Brother in Arms: A Union Soldier’s Odyssey is a volume that explores the wartime experience through a soldier’s eyes, making it an engaging and valuable read for those interested in American history, the Civil War, and military history.

    Focusing on a wartime community with divided allegiances, Judkin Browning offers new insights into the effects of war on southerners and the nature of civil-military relations under long-term occupation, especially coastal residents' negotiations with their occupiers and each other as they forged new social, cultural, and political identities.Unlike citizens in the core areas of the Confederacy, many white residents in eastern North Carolina had a strong streak of prewar Unionism and appeared to welcome the Union soldiers when they first arrived. By 1865, however, many of these residents would alter their allegiance, developing a strong sense of southern nationalism. African Americans in the region, on the other hand, utilized the presence of Union soldiers to empower themselves, as they gained their freedom in the face of white hostility. Browning's study ultimately tells the story of Americans trying to define their roles, with varying degrees of success and failure, in a reconfigured country.

    Brady, had the vision to create a detailed photographic record of the conflict, which nobody imagined would last for more than a few months.Brady and his associate photographers made literally thousands of images, for the most part now in the care of the Library of Congress. This book is intended as a tribute to these talented, hardy, and ardent photographers, reproducing a selection of their works -- blemishes and all -- which are now recognized as the first in depth photo documentation of warfare.Mathew Brady devoted himself utterly to his objective, sinking all of his personal funds and heavy loans into the effort to equip his photographers with horse drawn mobile darkrooms with which they could follow the Union forces and capture their exploits throughout the four year conflict. When the war was over, however, his customers shied away from death and destruction, preferring lighter, more agreeable fare, and Brady's business went bust owing money to scores of creditors. As with many artists before him and since, the true value of his work was not fully appreciated until after his death, broke and alone, in 1896.

    

    Experience the Civil War's most eerie occurences, spooky events, unsolved mysteries, and myths and legends related and debunked.

    With both sides bent on claiming the city, Vicksburg, and the fate of the nation, lay in the balance. General Ulysses S. Grant began his campaign on the city in November 1862, but he was forced to abandon the operation in December when the fiery General Earl Van Dorn made a daring raid on Grant's main supply depot at Holly Springs, Mississippi. With the help of the CSS Arkansas, Van Dorn's single day raid on Grant's supply base saved Vicksburg from Grant's forces for an entire year. Historian Brandon H. Beck recounts the tactics, leaders, and legends involved in this exciting, if overlooked, chapter of Civil War history.

    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

    There are no “religious” candidates because all are religious in one way or another. The question is: What difference does this make once the person is in office? While we can’t predict the future, we can look to the past to give us a clue. Written by leading American historians, Faith and the American Presidency shows how the personal beliefs of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Ronald Reagan—among others—shaped their public policies. What readers will see is that religious faith does indeed shape the presidency in ways that are both subtle and unexpected.

    Brown was a revolutionary abolitionist in the United States who became famous in his own time for practicing armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery for good. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas and became notorious for his attempted raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859. For that, he was tried and executed for treason against the state of Virginia, murder, and conspiracy. Brown has been called "the most controversial of all 19th-century Americans." Brown's attempt in 1859 to start a liberation movement among enslaved African Americans in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) electrified the nation. He was tried for treason against the state of Virginia, the murder of five pro-slavery Southerners, and inciting a slave insurrection and was subsequently hanged. Southerners alleged that his rebellion was the tip of the abolitionist iceberg and represented the wishes of the Republican Party to end slavery. Historians agree that the Harpers Ferry raid in 1859 escalated tensions that, a year later, led to secession and the Civil War.Brown was hardly apologetic about his attempted raid. During his trial, Brown addressed the court, “Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.”That speech, along with other words and interviews spoken by Brown during and after his trial and imprisonment are contained here in a collection of Primary Accounts of John Brown. Included are the last letters to his family, his last speech, his interview in prison, and the final note he wrote the day he was executed which predicted that slavery would only be abolished through the spilling of blood. This edition of Primary Accounts of John Brown is specially formatted with a Table of Contents and images of Harpers Ferry and Brown.

    In Lincoln on War, historian Harold Holzer gathers and interprets Lincoln’s speeches, letters, memoranda, orders, telegrams, and casual remarks, organizing them chronologically and allowing readers to experience Lincoln’s growth from an eager young Indian War officer to a middle-aged dove congressman to a surprisingly hardened and determined hawk as the Union’s commander-in-chief.We observe a man willing to sacrifice life and treasure in unprecedented quantities, to risk wounding the pride of vain generals, and even to mislead the public if it meant the preservation of an unbreakable union of states, the destruction of slavery, and the restoration of America as an example to inspire the world. This volume covers strategy; tactics; the endless hiring, sustaining, motivating, and dismissal of commanders; military discipline; and military technology. Modern commanders-in-chief have repeatedly quoted Lincoln to justify their own wars, so it behooves us as citizens to know Lincoln’s record well. From masterpieces such as the Gettysburg Address to lesser-known meditations on God’s purposes, Lincoln on War is the first book to highlight exclusively Lincoln’s sublime and enduring words on war.

    If you're not as familiar with Davis as you are with Lincoln, it's not surprising: when the Northern victors rewrote the history of the Civil War, they glorified liberal Lincoln while all but ignoring conservative Davis - a biased trend that continues to this day.In this one-of-a-kind Civil War Sesquicentennial edition, The Quotable Jefferson Davis: Selections from the Writings and Speeches of the Confederacy's First President, award-winning author, Southern historian, and Davis family relation, Colonel Lochlainn Seabrook, brings the Rebel leader's forgotten words and ideas back to life; traditional American beliefs that were once ardently embraced by over half of the United States. Included here, in some 300 footnoted entries, are examples of Davis' core views on government, the Constitution, the Union, states' rights, slavery, secession, his presidency, the War, the Confederacy, the Southern people, Lincoln, Yankees, Reconstruction, and more.Though brief, this is a significant work that should be required reading in every American home and school. For with the original intention of the Founding Fathers quickly disappearing (that, in Davis' words, "sovereignty is inherent in the people"), and with the central government continuing to enlarge on a daily basis, this book's powerful message and revolutionary contents are now more topical than at any time since President Davis took office in 1861. An attractive, unique, affordable, and popular tourist-friendly work that will appeal to both casual Civil War buffs and hardcore academicians alike, The Quotable Jefferson Davis is the perfect addition to any retail outlet, including Civil War sites, historic houses, and museum gift stores. The foreword is by Percival Beacroft, B.A., J.D. Available in paperback and hardcover.Civil War scholar Lochlainn Seabrook, a descendant of the families of Alexander H. Stephens and John S. Mosby, is the most prolific and popular pro-South writer in the world today. Known as the "new Shelby Foote," he is a recipient of the prestigious Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal and the author of over 50 books that have introduced hundreds of thousands to the truth about the War for Southern Independence. A seventh-generation Kentuckian of Appalachian heritage and the sixth great-grandson of the Earl of Oxford, Colonel Seabrook has a forty-year background in American and Southern history, and is the author of the international blockbuster Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!His other titles include: The Great Yankee Coverup: What the North Doesn't Want You to Know About Lincoln's War; Confederacy 101: Amazing Facts You Never Knew About America's Oldest Political Tradition; Confederate Flag Facts: What Every American Should Know About Dixie's Southern Cross; Abraham Lincoln Was a Liberal, Jefferson Was a Conservative: The Missing Key to Understanding the American Civil War; The Southern Secession Ordinances: Yankee Myth, Confederate Fact; Women in Gray: A Tribute to the Ladies Who Supported the Southern Confederacy; Lincoln's War: The Real Cause, the Real Winner, the Real Loser; Everything You Were Taught About American Slavery is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!; A Rebel Born: A Defense of Nathan Bedford Forrest; Abraham Lincoln: The Southern View; Give This Book to a Yankee: A Southern Guide to the Civil War for Northerners; and Honest Jeff and Dishonest Abe: A Southern Children's Guide to the Civil War.

    He describes extensively the various reform movements, women's rights, social reform and, of course, abolitionism, which spread throughout the country. His treatment of the slavery issue is very fair, and must be read to understand the point of view of those Southerners who did not feel they could end the institution immediately, but deplored the institution itself.Extensively footnoted, and annotated, there is no better source for understanding the entire country in the 1850's.Chapter 1: Hour of VictoryChapter 2: Lineaments of a New RepublicChapter 3: Culture of the MassesChapter 4: The Pulse of reformChapter 5: For Those Just EndsChapter 6: Election of a War HeroChapter 7: The gathering QuarrelChapter 8: Clay to the RescueChapter 9: The Great DebateChapter 10: The Union Stands FirmChapter 11: Southern Acquiescence, With ConditionsChapter 12: Northern Acquiescence, With ReservationsChapter 13: The Lot of the BondsmanChapter 14: The Cash Account of SlaveryChapter 15: Slavery, Race Adjustment and the FutureChapter 16: Brother Jonathen Asserts Himself

    Grant The Forgotten Hero chronicles the story of Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War. Ask an American what they remember about Ulysses S. Grant and they will recall that he was a heavy drinker, not that he was the President, nor one of the world’s greatest generals. An unusual legacy for the man most responsible for preserving this great nation. This book portrays Grant as an incredibly modest and humble man, perhaps the reason his true character failed to shine through. It tackles the old myths, head on, through logical analysis of the historical record and disproves most of the legend that has distorted his extraordinary military accomplishments. During the war, Grant captured three enemy armies intact and came within a whisker of capturing four, a feat unequalled in history and over so great a foe as Robert E. Lee. Ulysses S. Grant was one of America's greatest heroes, who sadly most Americans have forgotten.

    The argument inspired a brainstorm: Why not let the magazine’s 125,000 readers in on the conversation by offering “a series of papers on some of the great battles of the war to be written by officers in command on both sides.” The articles would be written by generals, Union and Confederate alike, who had commanded the engagements two decades earlier—“or, if he were not living,” by “the person most entitled to speak for him or in his place.” The pieces would present both sides of each major battle, and would be fair and free of politics. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the most enduring entries from the classic four-volume series Battles and Leaders of the Civil War have now been edited and merged into one definitive volume. Here are the best of the immortal first-person accounts of the Civil War originally published in the pages of The Century Magazine more than a hundred years ago.Hearts Touched by Fire offers stunning accounts of the war’s great battles written by the men who planned, fought, and witnessed them, from leaders such as General Ulysses S. Grant, General George McClellan, and Confederate captain Clement Sullivane to men of lesser rank. This collection also features new year-by-year introductions by esteemed historians, including James M. McPherson, Craig L. Symonds, and James I. Robertson, Jr., who cast wise modern eyes on the cataclysm that changed America and would go down as the bloodiest conflict in our nation’s history.No one interested in our country’s past will want to be without this collection of the most popular and influential first-person Civil War memoirs ever published.

    Share in all the humorous and strange events that took place behind the scenes of some of the most famous Civil War moments. Picture a pedestal in a public park with no statue on top; Rowland’s book explains that when the members of the New York Monument Commission went to hire a sculptor to finish the statue, they were shocked to discover that there was no money left in the agency’s accounts to pay for the project. The money for the statue of Dan Sickles had been stolen—stolen by former monument committee chairman Dan Sickles! Brig. Gen. Philip Kearny was the son of a New York tycoon who had helped found the New York Stock Exchange, and who groomed his boy to be a force on Wall Street. The younger Kearny decided his call was to be a force on the field of battle, so despite a law degree and an inheritance of better than $1 million, he joined the U.S. Army and studied cavalry tactics in France. His dashing figure in the saddle earned him the name of Kearny the Magnificent, probably because Kearny rode with a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other while holding the horse’s reins in his teeth. This habit proved useful after he lost his left arm in the Mexican War, because he was able to continue to wave his sword with all the menace to which he was accustomed while still guiding his horse.

    Jimmy Rawlins is a teenaged bushwhacker who leads his friends on ambushes of Union patrols. They join infamous guerrilla leader Bloody Bill Anderson on a raid through Missouri, but Jimmy questions his commitment to the Cause when he discovers this madman plans to sacrifice a Union prisoner in a hellish ritual to raise the Confederate dead. Richard Addison is an aging captain of a lackluster Union militia. Depressed over his son's death in battle, a glimpse of Jimmy changes his life. Jimmy and his son look so much alike that Addison becomes obsessed with saving him from Bloody Bill. Captain Addison must wreck his reputation to win this war within a war, while Jimmy must decide whether to betray the Confederacy to stop the evil arising in the woods of Missouri.

    In Moments of Despair, David Silkenat explores these shifting sentiments.Antebellum white North Carolinians stigmatized suicide, divorce, and debt, but the Civil War undermined these entrenched attitudes, forcing a reinterpretation of these issues in a new social, cultural, and economic context in which they were increasingly untethered from social expectations. Black North Carolinians, for their part, used emancipation to lay the groundwork for new bonds of community and their own interpretation of social frameworks. Silkenat argues that North Carolinians' attitudes differed from those of people outside the South in two respects. First, attitudes toward these cultural practices changed more abruptly and rapidly in the South than in the rest of America, and second, the practices were interpreted through a prism of race. Drawing upon a robust and diverse body of sources, including insane asylum records, divorce petitions, bankruptcy filings, diaries, and personal correspondence, this innovative study describes a society turned upside down as a consequence of a devastating war.

    Considered Lee’s “most one-sided victory of the war,” Fredericksburg was a significant turning point in the Civil War.1862 takes a new look at the battle and provides readers with a unique perspective on what the war meant to non combatants and particularly to blacks on the cusp of freedom. This extraordinary coverage is made possible by newly discovered primary sources, including a never-before-known slave diary. From death, injury, and despair to victory and the trials of post-war life, the 1862 battle of Fredericksburg changed a town and a nation forever. As the newest installment in the New Look series, this fresh, new historical book is timed to coincide with the beginning of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and will complement school curriculums in fifth and eighth grades.National Geographic supports K-12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources.Visit www.natgeoed.org/commoncore for more information.

    Michael Sauvage, a prairie-farmer's son, and Erik Path, a young carpenter's apprentice from Toronto, are among the first soldiers to join the Allied sniping program. Michael and Erik could not be more different, but their unique skills, when combined, make them the deadliest sniper team in Europe.Now those skills will be put to the test, and the price of failure could result in the deaths of millions of allied soldiers and civilians, and defeat at the hands of the Germans.Rumors that the Germans are close to completing a new battlefield gas; odorless, colorless, and invariably fatal, have the Allies scrambling to find a way to stop this horrifying killer for which they have no defense.Michael and Erik are given the task of tracking down the laboratory where the gas is being manufactured and tested, deep behind enemy lines in occupied France. Their mission: destroy the lab and assassinate the scientist leading the research.

    Giangreco immerses us in the thrilling history of the U.S. Army. From the defeat of British general Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, to Antietam on the bloodiest day of the Civil War, to D-Day, the Tet Offensive, Operation Desert Sabre, and beyond, here is a matchless portrait of the world's greatest democracy in wartime. Filled with more than 1,400 photographs and historic paintings, United States Army is a fitting testament to the valor and sacrifice of America's ground troops.

    

    

    

    The Photographic History of the Civil War was first published in 1911 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the great conflict. Extremely popular then, it has become a rare book. Here, in five double volumes, is the complete and unabridged original edition, text and photographs carefully reproduced in the original format and full size.The thousands of photographs contained within are remarkable in their immediacy, spontaneity, and authenticity. They demonstrate the power of the camera as well as the importance of the photographer.   They are a unique record of one of the greatest conflicts in the history of mankind.These pictures can be viewed as art, as history and as journalism. Covering every aspect of the war --from the front to weapons, from tactics to the wounded, from everyday life to grief, from victory to defeat—these volumes are a testament to a mighty conflict and to the great nation which emerged from it.

    . . The Civil War is often conceived in simplistic, black and white terms: whites from the North and South fighting over states’ rights, usually centered on the issue of black slavery. But, as Jerry Thompson shows in Tejanos in Gray, motivations for allegiance to the South were often more complex than traditional interpretations have indicated.Gathered for the first time in this book, the forty-one letters and letter fragments written by two Mexican Texans, Captains Manuel Yturri and Joseph Rafael de la Garza, reveal the intricate and intertwined relationships that characterized the lives of Texan citizens of Mexican descent in the years leading up to and including the Civil War. The experiences and impressions reflected in the letters of these two young members of the Tejano elite from San Antonio, related by marriage, provide fascinating glimpses of a Texas that had displaced many Mexican-descent families after the Revolution, yet could still inspire their loyalty to the Confederate flag. De la Garza, in fact, would go on to give his life for the Southern cause.The letters, translated by José Roberto Juárez and with meticulous annotation and commentary by Thompson, deepen and provide nuance to our understanding of the Civil War and its combatants, especially with regard to the Tejano experience. Historians, students, and general readers interested in the Civil War will appreciate Tejanos in Gray for its substantial contribution to borderlands studies, military history, and the often-overlooked interplay of region, ethnicity, and class in the Texas of the mid-nineteenth century.

    Historians Robert N. Rosen and Richard W. Hatcher III have gathered, in one book, more illustrations and photographs about the "First Shot" than can be found in any other previous book. Here the reader will find the dramatic story--in words and pictures--of the leaders, personalities, soldiers, forts, and the dramatic artillery bombardment itself, all under one cover.

    Graham's A Pocket History of the Civil War is a font of information that will interest a wide range of readers, including the ardent history buff.”-Foreword MagazineMartin Graham, a former associate editor of Blue & Gray magazine, has penned a new book entitled A Pocket History of the Civil War. The book is published in conjunction with The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. Each of the books' eight chapters presents a different theme, ranging from the transformation of civilians into soldiers to the prison systems of North and South. Graham also provides 4-5 page overviews of each of the key battles of war from Fort Sumpter to Appomattox. The final chapter offers brief biographies of eight unusual characters from the war-and an surprising event from its aftermath. An appendix provides a “test your knowledge” section, a glossary, and a list of books further reading.Civil War buffs will enjoy the many tables that Graham provides. For example, there is a table that lists the greatest percentage of regimental loss in battle (for the Union it was 1st Minnesota which lost 82% at Gettysburg and for the Confederacy it was the 3rd North Carolina which lost 90% at Antietam). Another table lists the higher ranking generals killed in battle and their manner of death. History buffs will relish the information Graham serves up on the economics of the war, camp life, and such lesser-known personalities as Johnny Clem, “the drummer boy of Shiloh.”For readers new to the war, or who have become interested in it due to the Sesquicentennial, Graham has provided, a concise overview that is sure to inspire further study. In his Foreword to the book, David A. Patterson, CEO of the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg writes, “Incorporating all of the fundamental information about the Civil War in one concise, easy to reference and well laid-out volume makes this an essential purchase for the Sesquicentennial Commemoration.”

    Out of this crucible, a new America was forged. Through the remarkable survival of thousands of documents, photographs, mementos, personal diaries and antebellum structures, Savannah's unique Civil War story comes alive. Sheehy's compelling narrative combined with Wallace's stunning photography, takes the reader on a wonderful ride through history. Now, in this richly-researched work, homes, byways and buildings - forgotten by time - burst back to life, reanimated by the people and stories captured in Savannah, Immortal City.

    He saw action in five states, participating in the battles of Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg as well as in the Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns. Through his letters to his parents and siblings, we observe the early idealism of the young recruit, and then, as one friend after another died beside him, we witness how the war gradually hardened him. Yet, despite the increasing brutality of what would become America’s costliest conflict, Hayward continually reaffirmed his faith in the Union cause, reenlisting for service late in 1863.Hayward’s correspondence takes us through many of the war’s most significant developments,including the collapse of slavery and the enforcement of Union policy toward Southern civilians. Also revealed are Hayward’s feelings about Confederates, his assessments of Union political and military leadership, and his attitudes toward desertion, conscription, forced marches, drilling, fighting, bravery, cowardice, and comradeship.Ultimately, Hayward’s letters reveal the emotions—occasionally guarded but more often expressed with striking candor—of a soldier who at every battle resolved to be, as one comrade described him, “the first to spring forward and the last to leave the field.”Timothy J. Orr is an assistant professor of military history at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

    He delivered this speech just three years after the Virginia Civil War Commission published a guide proclaiming that the Centennial is no time for finding fault or placing blame or fighting the issues all over again.David Blight takes his readers back to the centennial celebration to determine how Americans then made sense of the suffering, loss, and liberation that had wracked the United States a century earlier. Amid cold war politics and civil rights protest, four of America s most incisive writers explored the gulf between remembrance and reality. Robert Penn Warren, the southern-reared poet-novelist who recanted his support of segregation; Bruce Catton, the journalist and U.S. Navy officer who became a popular Civil War historian; Edmund Wilson, the century s preeminent literary critic; and James Baldwin, the searing African-American essayist and activist each exposed America s triumphalist memory of the war. And each, in his own way, demanded a reckoning with the tragic consequences it spawned.Blight illuminates not only mid-twentieth-century America s sense of itself but also the dynamic, ever-changing nature of Civil War memory. On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the war, we have an invaluable perspective on how this conflict continues to shape the country s political debates, national identity, and sense of purpose."

    The Union Army of the Cumberland regrouped in Nashville, while the Confederate Army of Tennessee camped 30 miles away in Murfreesboro. On December 26 the Federals marched southward and fought a three-day brawl at Stones River with their Confederate counterparts. The Confederates withdrew, and both armies spent the winter and spring harassing each other and regrouping for the next round. In the Confederate camp, dissention corroded the army's high command. The book will use letters, reports, memoirs, and other primary sources to tell the story of the battles for Middle Tennessee in late 1862 and 1863. The critical engagement at Stones River (by percentage of loss the Civil War's bloodiest battle) and the masterful Tullahoma operation will receive detailed attention

     This volume in the Seven-Day Scholar series brings to life significant moments in our nation's heroic tragedy, the Civil War, and coincides with its 150th anniversary. The book is organized into fifty-two chapters, corresponding to the weeks in a year; and each week has a theme-what ignited the war, Antietam, soldiers' food and drink, the 54th Massachusetts, the Gettysburg Address, Vicksburg, medical care, Lincoln's assassination, why the North won, and many more. Each chapter includes seven related narrative entries, one for every day of the week. These one-page entries, which read like historical fiction, bring to life crucial political decisions, unforgettable people, key battlefield moments, scholarly debates, and struggles on the home front. The book also explores many little-known episodes, answering questions such as:Why did Jefferson and Varina Davis take in a mixed-race child during the warWhat were the causes of riots in New York City and RichmondWhy was General William Sherman demoted for "insanity"Why did the Union Army turn Robert E. Lee's estate into a cemeteryEntries also include follow-up resources where curious readers can learn more. Readers can sweep through the book from beginning to end, or use it as a reference book, periodically dipping in and out of topics they want to explore. This is the perfect book for history buffs, and for those who missed out on learning about this captivating period in American history.

    The vortex of the Dakota Uprising along the Minnesota River encompassed thousands of people in what was perhaps the greatest massacre of whites by Indians in American history. To read about the fast paced and unpredictable flood of killing and destruction is to discover heartrending emotion, irony, tragedy, cowardice, and heroism from unexpected quarters. Previous attempts to sort out individual experiences and place the events in a coherent chronological and geographical order have enjoyed little success. Award-winning author Gregory F. Michno's Dakota Dawn: The Decisive First Week of the Sioux Uprising, August 17-24, 1862 offers an essential clarity and vivid portrait that readers will find refreshing and invigorating.Dakota Dawn focuses in great detail on the first week of the killing spree, a great paroxysm of destruction when the Dakota succeeded, albeit fleetingly, in driving out the white man. During those seven days at least 400 white settlers were killed, the great majority innocent victims slaughtered in the most shocking manner. Nowhere else in the Western United States was there a record of such sustained attacks against a fort (Ridgely) or upon a town (New Ulm). After soldiers put down the uprising, hundreds of Dakotas were captured and put before military tribunals with little or no opportunity to present a fair defense; 38 were hanged on one massive gallows on December 26, 1862.Michno's research includes select secondary studies and 2,000 pages of primary sources including recollections, original records, diaries, newspaper accounts, and other archival records. One seldom used resource is the Indian Depredation Claim files. After the uprising, settlers filed nearly 3,000 claims for damages in which they itemized losses and set forth their experiences. These priceless documents paint firsthand slices of the life of a frontier people, their cabins, tools, clothes, crops, animals, and cherished possessions. Many of these claims have never been incorporated into a book; Michno's use of them allows him to more fully expound on various episodes and correct previous misconceptions.Richly illustrated with 42 contemporary and modern photos and illustrations and accompanied by 19 original maps, Dakota Dawn now stands as the definitive account of one of the most important and previously misunderstood events in American history.About the Author: Award-winning author Gregory F. Michno is a Michigan native and the author of three dozen articles and ten books dealing with World War II and the American West, including Lakota Noon; Battle at Sand Creek; The Encyclopedia of Indian Wars; The Deadliest Indian War in the West; and Circle the Wagons. Greg helped edit and appeared in the DVD history The Great Indian Wars: 1540-1890. He lives in Colorado, with his wife Susan.

    Lee's vaunted Army of Northern Virginia and proved to detractors that they could fight for freedom and citizenship for themselves and their enslaved brethren. For fourteen of the black soldiers who stormed New Market Heights that day, their bravery would be awarded with the nation's highest honor: The Congressional Medal of Honor.With vivid firsthand accounts and meticulous tactical detail, James S. Price brings the Battle of New Market Heights into brilliant focus with maps by master cartographer Steven Stanley.

    Compiled by an expert in the literature of the era, the poems and short stories appear in chronological order. They trace the war's progress and portray a gamut of moods, from the early days of eagerness to confront the foe to long years of horror at the ongoing carnage and sad relief at the struggle's end.Selections include the poetry of Walt Whitman, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; observations by Herman Melville and Louisa May Alcott; and noteworthy fiction by Ambrose Bierce ("An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge") and Mark Twain ("A True Story, Repeated Word for Word, As I Heard It"). Lesser-known writers, many of them anonymous, offer heartfelt testimonials and eyewitness accounts from battlefields and the homefront.

    Covering dozens of states and the District of Columbia, this easy-to-use guide provides a concise text description and one or more images for each entry, as well as directions to all sites.

    Long remembered as the most unforgiving and inglorious warrior of the Confederacy, Ferguson has often been dismissed by historians as a cold-blooded killer. In Confederate Outlaw: Champ Ferguson and the Civil War in Appalachia, biographer Brian D. McKnight demonstrates how such a simple judgment ignores the complexity of this legendary character.In his analysis, McKnight maintains that Ferguson fought the war on personal terms and with an Old Testament mentality regarding the righteousness of his cause. He believed that friends were friends and enemies were enemies--no middle ground existed. As a result, he killed prewar comrades as well as longtime adversaries without regret, all the while knowing that he might one day face his own brother, who served as a Union scout.Ferguson's continued popularity demonstrates that his bloody legend did not die on the gallows. Widespread rumors endured of his last-minute escape from justice, and over time, the borderland terrorist emerged as a folk hero for many southerners. Numerous authors resurrected and romanticized his story for popular audiences, and even Hollywood used Ferguson's life to create the composite role played by Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Josey Wales. McKnight's study deftly separates the myths from reality and weaves a thoughtful, captivating, and accurate portrait of the Confederacy's most celebrated guerrilla.An impeccably researched biography, Confederate Outlaw offers an abundance of insight into Ferguson's wartime motivations, actions, and tactics, and also describes borderland loyalties, guerrilla operations, and military retribution. McKnight concludes that Ferguson, and other irregular warriors operating during the Civil War, saw the conflict as far more of a personal battle than a political one.

    Tracing Brown's legacy through writers and artists like Thomas Hovenden, W. E. B. Du Bois, Robert Penn Warren, Jacob Lawrence, Kara Walker, and others, Blake Gilpin transforms Brown from an object of endless manipulation into a dynamic medium for contemporary beliefs about the process and purpose of the American republic.Gilpin argues that the endless distortions of John Brown, misrepresentations of a man and a cause simultaneously noble and terrible, have only obscured our understanding of the past and loosened our grasp of the historical episodes that define America's struggles for racial equality. By showing Brown's central role in the relationship between the American past and the American present, Gilpin clarifies Brown's complex legacy and highlights his importance in the nation's ongoing struggle with the role of violence, the meaning of equality, and the intertwining paths these share with the process of change.