Best of
Civil-War

2013

Gettysburg: The Last Invasion


Allen C. Guelzo - 2013
    Guelzo shows us the face, the sights and sounds of nineteenth-century combat: the stone walls and gunpowder clouds of Pickett's Charge; the reason that the Army of Northern Virginia could be smelled before it could be seen; the march of thousands of men from the banks of the Rappahannock in Virginia to the Pennsylvania hills. What emerges is a previously untold story: from the personal politics roiling the Union and Confederate officer ranks, to the peculiar character of artillery units. Through such scrutiny the cornerstone battle of the Civil War is given extraordinarily vivid new life.

The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South


Bruce Levine - 2013
    Told through the words of the people who lived it, The Fall of the House of Dixie illuminates the way a war undertaken to preserve the status quo became a second American Revolution whose impact on the country was as strong and lasting as that of our first.   In 1860 the American South was a vast, wealthy, imposing region where a small minority had amassed great political power and enormous fortunes through a system of forced labor. The South’s large population of slaveless whites almost universally supported the basic interests of plantation owners, despite the huge wealth gap that separated them. By the end of 1865 these structures of wealth and power had been shattered. Millions of black people had gained their freedom, many poorer whites had ceased following their wealthy neighbors, and plantation owners were brought to their knees, losing not only their slaves but their political power, their worldview, their very way of life. This sea change was felt nationwide, as the balance of power in Congress, the judiciary, and the presidency shifted dramatically and lastingly toward the North, and the country embarked on a course toward equal rights.   Levine captures the many-sided human drama of this story using a huge trove of diaries, letters, newspaper articles, government documents, and more. In The Fall of the House of Dixie, the true stakes of the Civil War become clearer than ever before, as slaves battle for their freedom in the face of brutal reprisals; Abraham Lincoln and his party turn what began as a limited war for the Union into a crusade against slavery by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation; poor southern whites grow increasingly disillusioned with fighting what they have come to see as the plantation owners’ war; and the slave owners grow ever more desperate as their beloved social order is destroyed, not just by the Union Army, but also from within. When the smoke clears, not only Dixie but all of American society is changed forever.   Brilliantly argued and engrossing, The Fall of the House of Dixie is a sweeping account of the destruction of the old South during the Civil War, offering a fresh perspective on the most colossal struggle in our history and the new world it brought into being.Praise for The Fall of the House of Dixie   “This is the Civil War as it is seldom seen. . . . A portrait of a country in transition . . . as vivid as any that has been written.”—The Boston Globe  “An absorbing social history . . . For readers whose Civil War bibliography runs to standard works by Bruce Catton and James McPherson, [Bruce] Levine’s book offers fresh insights.”—The Wall Street Journal  “More poignantly than any book before, The Fall of the House of Dixie shows how deeply intertwined the Confederacy was with slavery, and how the destruction of both made possible a ‘second American revolution’ as far-reaching as the first.”—David W. Blight, author of American Oracle  “Splendidly colorful . . . Levine recounts this tale of Southern institutional rot with the ease and authority born of decades of study.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)   “A deep, rich, and complex analysis of the period surrounding and including the American Civil War.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Valor's Measure: Based on the heroic Civil War career of Joshua L. Chamberlain


Thomas Wade Oliver - 2013
    From his legendary bayonet charge down the slopes of Little Round Top hill during the Battle of Gettysburg, to the startling calling of Union troops to salute as the defeated Confederate Army surrendered to him at Appomattox, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain redefined the scale of greatness in this country. Wounded six times in battle, twice assumed to be a fatality, the volunteer officer from Maine continued to lead gallantly until the final shot was fired during the Civil War. Valor's Measure tells the death-defying tale of this Medal of Honor hero and captures his spirit as no autobiography can.

Oaklayne, The Reconstruction


Karen Shriver - 2013
    Oaklayne Plantation is in ruins, a stark reflection of the condition of a once prosperous country and her families who have been torn apart by war. Was anything gained by the deaths of so many Americans? Is all hope for restoration gone?The Reconstruction Era is an often overlooked, but politically charged time in American history. Oaklayne, The Reconstruction presents an engaging mix of heart rending tragedy, sabotage, murder, corruption and intrigue, together with humor, romance, joy, faith, hope and love. Come along with General Adam Layne as he walks the tumultuous road toward rebuilding his live, his family, his childhood home and his country in this historically accurate portrayal of a man who refuses to accept meaningless loss.

12 Years a Slave and the Emancipation Proclamation


Solomon Northup - 2013
    He provided details of slave markets in Washington, DC, as well as describing at length cotton cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana.President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

A Field Guide to Gettysburg: Experiencing the Battlefield Through Its History, Places, and People


Carol Reardon - 2013
    Ideal for carrying on trips through the park as well as for the armchair historian, this book includes comprehensive maps and deft descriptions of the action that situate visitors in time and place. Crisp narratives introduce key figures and events, and eye-opening vignettes help readers more fully comprehend the import of what happened and why. A wide variety of contemporary and postwar source materials offer colorful stories and present interesting interpretations that have shaped--or reshaped--our understanding of Gettysburg today.Each stop addresses the following: What happened here? Who fought here? Who commanded here? Who fell here? Who lived here? How did participants remember this event?

Return to Shirley Plantation


Carrie Fancett Pagels - 2013
    Injured at Malvern Hill, Matthew is taken by the Union army to Shirley Plantation in Virginia where he is tended by seamstress Angelina Rose, a freed slave. Given an opportunity to leave the South and start a new life for herself, Angelina remained for the sake of her sister’s orphaned twins who are still enslaved. Matthew must use his acting skills to to remain safe. Will his return to Shirley Plantation settle a mystery concerning his father’s past? And will Matthew find the family he longs for?

Gettysburg: The Story of the Battle with Maps


Stackpole Books - 2013
    70 color maps and insightful text tell the hour-by-hour story of the 3-day Battle of Gettysburg.

Prophet - The Story of Nat Turner


Kenya Cagle - 2013
    On August 21, 1831, he led a freedom movement that resulted in the participation of nearly 100 slaves and free blacks throughout the state. This crusade concluded with the ultimate punishment of nearly 60 slave owners, their wives and children. He eluded capture for nearly six weeks was eventually imprisoned and later hanged. The incident frightened the slave owners so much that in a desperate attempt to hold on to their unjust power they enacted harsher laws against slaves and free black that exhilarated the emancipation movement. Born October 2, 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. Nat is born on the Virginia plantation of Benjamin Turner. At the age of 3 Nat is witnessed by his parents prophesying about past events. Completely amazed they realize that their son was born for a higher purpose. In addition to being a young prophet Benjamin Turner and the entire neighborhood is astonished and shocked to learn of Nat's mysterious reading and writing comprehension at age 5. At age 10, Nat's father escapes slavery vowing to return for his wife and child. By age 12 Nat encounters a gang of 4 white youth who pummels him helplessly with snowballs. A few weeks later Nat runs into that same gang. This time he revenges the defeat by pelting his attackers with rocks. As a teenager Nat leaves the plantation without permission. An overseer immediately whips him upon his return. Nat sets a trap for the overseer, which results in a horse accident. The overseer legs are crushed. He is unable to return to work. Nat becomes fed up with being enslaved. He runs away. After being free for 30 days, Nat receives a vision from God telling him to return to his earthly master. Nat also see images of the future civil war to come. Nat is assured by the Holy Spirit that his special purpose would help to bring about change. Still thinking about himself Nat argues with the spirit. The spirit chastises Nat. Nat decides to return.After Nat returns some slave dislikes him. Others think he is nuts for returning. On his return, a young beautiful slave girl named Cherry questions Nat. God rewards Nat for his loyalty and he marries Cherry. Cherry is a strong black woman who loves Nat and stands behind everything he does. It is Cherry who Nat shares his innermost thoughts and visions with. They have one child, Charlotte whom Nat loves very much. He does his best to be a good father. Because he returned on his own, Nat is allowed to travel as much as he wants without a pass. In addition he is allowed to preach at different plantations. He is a fiery preacher and leader in his Southampton County neighborhood. His reputation expands and Nat is one of the most sought after black preachers in the south. Nat's slave owners trust him very much. Nat's first signal is an eclipse of the Sun in 1831. It is revealed to Nat that he would lead an emancipation movement among his people. It is at this time that he realizes he must rise up and stand for his people. The emancipation movement begins officially on August 21, 1831, when he and six other former slaves, now freedom fighters punish the Travis family killing all five inhabitants, managing to secure arms and horses. This is when it all hits the fan. Nat and the freedom fighters travel from plantation to plantation punishing the wicked slave owners and their families with death through various means. They encounter many obstacles. They meet many interesting characters both slaves and non-slaves. In the end 55 slave owners and their families are eliminated. Over 200 innocent black are killed by barbaric revengeful mobs. It takes the United States Calvary, hundreds of militia and a force of nearly three thousand soldiers to stop this small group of determined revolutionaries.

Junius and Albert's Adventures in the Confederacy: A Civil War Odyssey


Peter Carlson - 2013
    Shuffled from one Rebel prison to another, they escaped and trekked across the snow-covered Appalachians with the help of slaves and pro-Union bushwhackers. Their amazing, long-forgotten odyssey is one of the great escape stories in American history, packed with drama, courage, horrors and heroics, plus moments of antic comedy.On their long, strange adventure, Junius and Albert encountered an astonishing variety of American characters—Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, Rebel con men and Union spies, a Confederate pirate-turned-playwright, a sadistic hangman nicknamed “the Anti-Christ,” a secret society called the Heroes of America, a Union guerrilla convinced that God protected him from Confederate bullets, and a mysterious teenage girl who rode to their rescue at just the right moment.Peter Carlson, author of the critically acclaimed K Blows Top, has, in Junius and Albert’s Adventures in the Confederacy, written a gripping story about the lifesaving power of friendship and a surreal voyage through the bloody battlefields, dark prisons, and cold mountains of the Civil War.

Smithsonian Civil War: Inside the National Collection


Smithsonian Institution - 2013
    The perfect gift book for fathers and history lovers, Smithsonian Civil War combines one-of-a-kind, famous, and previously unseen relics from the war in a truly unique narrative.Smithsonian Civil War takes the reader inside the great collection of Americana housed at twelve national museums and archives and brings historical gems to light. From the National Portrait Gallery come rare early photographs of Stonewall Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant; from the National Museum of American History, secret messages that remained hidden inside Lincoln's gold watch for nearly 150 years; from the National Air and Space Museum, futuristic Civil War-era aircraft designs. Thousands of items were evaluated before those of greatest value and significance were selected for inclusion here. Artfully arranged in 150 entries, they offer a unique, panoramic view of the Civil War.

Searching for George Gordon Meade: The Forgotten Victor of Gettysburg


Tom Huntington - 2013
    This book does a great deal to redress that historical injustice. Tom Huntington has invented a new genre of biography that shifts between past and present as he tells the story of Meade's life and describes his own pilgrimage to the key sites of that life. The result is an engrossing narrative that the reader can scarcely put down." - James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Battle Cry of Freedom""Searching for George Gordon Meade is a splendid book! Well-researched, well-reasoned, and well-written, it's a timely and vital addition to the all-too-meager literature on this neglected American hero. Strongly recommended for serious historians as well as for a general readership. Excellent!" - Ralph Peters, author of "Cain at Gettysburg""Much more than another Civil War biography, Tom Huntington's gripping personal 'search' for George Gordon Meade is unique and irresistible: a combination life story, military history, travelogue, and cultural commentary that brings us closer than ever to the old general and his strange reputation--and also opens new windows to our own unending search for an understandable national identity." - Harold Holzer, author and Chairman of Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial FoundationA historian's investigation of the life and times of Gen. George Gordon Meade to discover why the hero of Gettysburg has failed to achieve the status accorded to other generals of the conflict. Covers Meade's career from his part in the Mexican-American War through his participation in the great Civil War engagements, including Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Petersburg. Available for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Explores Meade's legacy today at reenactments, battlefields, museums, and institutions that preserve history.

Civil War Journal of a Union Soldier


P.C. Zick - 2013
    Harmon Camburn signed up for duty as a Union soldier two weeks after the first shots were fired in the Civil War. He served for the next three years, fighting in both Battles of Bull Run and other skirmishes of the War Between the States. His tour of duty ended with a shot through his lung and capture by Confederate soldiers. Fortunately, he survived his wounds and wrote about his time in the Union army. His great granddaughter, Patricia Camburn (P.C.) Zick, presents this journal along with additional annotations about the war in general. The journal weaves a tragic and compelling tapestry of war from the view at its center. Mr. Camburn's sardonic and realistic view of war is worth remembering. From the day of his enlistment in the Army in April 1861 in Adrian, Michigan, to his final days in the service of the army near Knoxville, Tennessee, the journal provides insight into the minutiae of a soldier's life, from what they ate to the somewhat unorthodox method of obtaining food. It shows the horror of the battlefield to the joys of simply having the sun shine after days of rain. The descriptions of the landscape are beautifully crafted, just as the scattered bodies on the battlefield are ghastly reminders of the cost of war.

My Life Untold


S.S. Gee Buro - 2013
    . . Magda Kline, the daughter of German immigrants, grows up on a rural farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Her life is carefree and full of love in the beautiful home of Stone Croft. When her father, Jonas, expands Stone Croft's holdings, he hires farm hand Lars Sutler, and Magda falls in love. Soon the rumors of war become headlines of battles and she must let go of Lars when he joins the 11th Pennsylvania. The effects of the war are felt in Gettysburg, but it is not until the bloodiest, three day battle of the Civil War is fought at her door step that Magda experiences the true horror of war and her life is changed forever. S.S. Gee Buro boldly explore the acts of mankind during war and how far one woman will go to save the man she loves. "The Best Independently Published Book I've Ever Read"   - not a natural "Bob Bickel (Vine Voice)" "1 of only 4 books that have made me cry"  -Book Addict "Book Junkie" "A Truly Amazing Story, One I Could Not Put Down"  -Nancy of Utah "Historical Fiction Must Read!"  -Sadie Lynn

Photography and the American Civil War


Jeff L. Rosenheim - 2013
    If the “War Between the States” was the test of the young republic’s commitment to its founding precepts, it was also a watershed in photographic history, as the camera recorded the epic, heartbreaking narrative from beginning to end—providing those on the home front, for the first time, with immediate visual access to the horrors of the battlefield.Photography and the American Civil War features both familiar and rarely seen images that include haunting battlefield landscapes strewn with bodies, studio portraits of armed Confederate and Union soldiers (sometimes in the same family) preparing to meet their destiny, rare multi-panel panoramas of Gettysburg and Richmond, languorous camp scenes showing exhausted troops in repose, diagnostic medical studies of wounded soldiers who survived the war’s last bloody battles, and portraits of both Abraham Lincoln and his assassin, John Wilkes Booth.Published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg (1863), this beautifully produced book features Civil War photographs by George Barnard, Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O’Sullivan, and many others.

Smithsonian Civil War: Inside the National Collection


Neil Kagan - 2013
    The perfect gift book for fathers and history lovers, Smithsonian Civil War combines one-of-a-kind, famous, and previously unseen relics from the war in a truly unique narrative.Smithsonian Civil War takes the reader inside the great collection of Americana housed at twelve national museums and archives and brings historical gems to light. From the National Portrait Gallery come rare early photographs of Stonewall Jackson and Ulysses S. Grant; from the National Museum of American History, secret messages that remained hidden inside Lincoln's gold watch for nearly 150 years; from the National Air and Space Museum, futuristic Civil War-era aircraft designs. Thousands of items were evaluated before those of greatest value and significance were selected for inclusion here. Artfully arranged in 150 entries, they offer a unique, panoramic view of the Civil War.

Guide to Gettysburg Battlefield Monuments


Tom Huntington - 2013
    Photos and descriptions of each monument, with information on who is being honored and what they did during the battle. Covers the entire Gettysburg National Military Park and all three days of fighting.

Hazardous Unions: Two Tales of a Civil War Christmas


Alison Bruce - 2013
    When the southern states secede, the twins are separated, and they find themselves on opposite sides of America’s bloodiest war.In the south, Maggie travels with the Hamiltons to Bellevue, a plantation in west Tennessee. When Major Hamilton is captured, it is up to Maggie to hold things together and deal with the Union cavalry troop that winters at Bellevue. Racism, politics and a matchmaking stepmother test Maggie’s resourcefulness as she fights for Bellevue, a wounded Confederate officer and the affections of the Union commander.In the north, Matty discovers an incriminating letter in General Worthington’s office, and soon she is on the run. With no one to turn to for help, she drugs the wealthy Colonel Cole Black and marries him, in hopes of getting the letter to his father, the governor of Michigan. But Cole is not happy about being married, and Matty’s life becomes all about survival. Two unforgettable stories of courage, strength and honor. **Contains 2 novellas.Editorial Reviews:"Maggie and Matty Becker will enchant you as they struggle for respect, survival, and love in the Civil War’s troubled time. You’ll sigh with pleasure as you finish each story." —Caroline Clemmons, author of Bluebonnet Bride"Two very talented authors, Alison Bruce and Kat Flannery, teamed up to write Hazardous Union; Two Tales of a Civil War Christmas. It is the story of twin sisters, Matty and Maggie Becker who are separated at the beginning of the Civil War….One major thing ties them to each other—their upbringing by loving and wise parents. As their stories unfold, they are both able to make a difference in the lives of the people they hold dear. They each solve a different mystery and, at the same time, fall in love. They also witness a form of racism within each of the families, reflecting the mores of the north and the south. The characters and the times are well depicted in this short novel. I highly recommend this novel to Civil War enthusiasts and readers who enjoy a well-written historical romance. If you like intrigue, mystery and romance, this book is for you. It will hold your attention and is a quick read that you won’t be able to put down." —Katherine Boyer, Tear a Page Blog"Double your reading pleasure with twin passions—two novellas featuring twins Maggie and Matty, and heroes who’ll steal your heart. Alison Bruce and Kat Flannery penned stories that play on your senses like a sonata. A must read!" —Jacquie Rogers, award-winning author of Much Ado About Madams"Hazardous Unions are twin stories about the adventures of two sisters during the Civil War and the dilemmas they get themselves into. Maggie's story, written by Alison Bruce, tells the tale of a Northern young woman who accepts a job as housekeeper to a Southern family…A wonderfully entertaining and well written novella, with engaging characters and appropriate language for the era. Ms. Bruce knows her history. I will be eager to read more of her work. Mattie, by Kat Flannery, is equally delightful. Unlike her sister, Mattie stays in the North working for a Union General…Even in the midst of war and danger and death, love will have its way, as it does with Maggie and Matty." —Charlene Raddon, author of To Have and to Hold

Stonewall Goes West: A Novel of The Civil War and What Might Have Been (Stonewall Goes West Trilogy)


R.E. Thomas - 2013
    Mathew Lively, author of "Calamity at Chancellorsville"Stonewall Jackson's death at the Battle of Chancellorsville is the great "what if" of the Civil War. In "Stonewall Goes West," the fabled Jackson survives his wounding at Chancellorsville in 1863 to assume command of the South’s Army of Tennessee. In a final bid to reverse the failing fortunes of the Confederacy, a maimed but unbowed General Jackson confronts not only Sherman's Union armies on the western front, but his own recalcitrant generals. "Stonewall Goes West" gives the classic "what if” a fresh, new answer in a fast-paced tale, rich with authentic detail, filled with battle and strategy, and populated by the Civil War's most colorful personalities.

Chancellorsville's Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church, May 3, 1863


Chris Mackowski - 2013
    They would assault it again with a very different result the following spring when General Joe Hooker, bogged down in bloody battle with the Army of Northern Virginia around the crossroads of Chancellorsville, ordered John Sedgwick s Sixth Corps to assault the heights and move to his assistance. This time the Union troops wrested the wall and high ground from the Confederates and drove west into the enemy s rear. The inland drive stalled in heavy fighting at Salem Church. Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front: The Battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church, May 3, 1863 is the first book-length study of these overlooked engagements and the central roles they played in the final Southern victory.Once Hooker opened the campaign with a brilliant march around General Lee s left flank, the Confederate commander violated military principles by dividing his under-strength army in the face of superior numbers. He shuttled most of his men west from around Fredericksburg under Stonewall Jackson to meet Hooker in the tangles of the Wilderness, leaving behind a small portion to watch Sedgwick s Sixth Corps. Jackson s devastating attack against Hooker s exposed right flank on May 2, however, convinced the Union army commander to order Sedgwick s large, unused corps to break through and march against Lee s rear. From that point on, Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front tightens the lens for a thorough examination of the decision-making, movements, and fighting that led to the breakthrough, inland thrust, and ultimate bloody stalemate at Salem Church.Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have long appreciated the pivotal roles Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church played in the campaign, and just how close the Southern army came to grief and the Union army to stunning success. Together they seamlessly weave their extensive newspaper, archival, and firsthand research into a compelling narrative to better understand these combats, which usually garner little more than a footnote to the larger story of Jackson s march and tragic fatal wounding.The success at Second Fredericksburg was one of the Union army s few bright spots in the campaign, while the setback at Salem Church stands as its most devastating lost opportunity. Instead of being trapped between the Sixth Corps hammer and Fighting Joe Hooker s anvil, Lee overcame long odds to achieve what is widely recognized as his greatest victory. But Lee s triumph played out as it did because of the pivotal events at Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church Chancellorsville s forgotten front where Union soldiers once more faced the horror of an indomitable wall of stone, and an undersized Confederate division stood up to a Union juggernaut.REVIEWS Too often historians have treated the battles of Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church as mere footnotes to the greater Chancellorsville campaign. In Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front, Mackowski and White bring the story to the forefront where it belongs, and they do so in a style at once entertaining and evocative. Donald Pfanz, award-winning author of Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier s Life Mackowski s and White s Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front is not just a micro-study of a small portion of a large campaign, but a study of the campaign from the perspective of overlooked battles. Anyone who thinks Second Fredericksburg, Salem Church, and Banks Ford were insignificant engagements are about to discover that the Federals who fought and died in these actions were not left behind simply as decoys, and the fighting so wonderfully researched and described had a direct effect on the entire campaign. Greg Mertz, supervisory historian, Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park Most studies of Chancellorsville focus on the fighting around the Chancellor house and on Stonewall Jackson s flank attack and mortal wounding. Few remember the campaign s second front at Fredericksburg and the intense deadly combat at Salem Church, where nearly 30,000 Federal troops of Sedgwick s VI Corps battled for their lives against Jubal Early s division and elements of Longstreet s First Corps. This stunning oversight has finally been corrected by historians Mackowski and White. Their readable, enjoyable, and deeply researched micro-tactical study is a must for anyone interested in Civil War battles in general, and Chancellorsville in particular. Eric J. Wittenberg, award-winning Civil War author Chris Mackowski and Kristopher White s Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front focuses on an overlooked and yet complex part of Fighting Joe Hooker s 1863 effort to defeat Robert E. Lee. Their study is simply first-rate, and should not and cannot be overlooked by anyone trying to understand the full importance of the Chancellorsville campaign. Lance J. Herdegen, award-winning author of The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front is sure to be among the best Civil War books published this year. Mackowski and White demonstrate the importance of this all-too-often neglected part of campaign with authenticity and eloquence. Their research is exhaustive, and their passion for the subject obvious. If you think you know all about Chancellorsville, think again. Professional historians and amateurs alike will gain new information and fresh insight by reading this book, and come away with a better appreciation for, and knowledge of, Lee s greatest victory. Mike Stevens, President, Central Virginia Battlefields Trust"

Private Sam


C.G. Richardson - 2013
    Sam woke up one peaceful April morning in Tennessee camped near a log church building whose name meant "peace". The day would be anything but peaceful for Sam and the rest of General Grant's army. The next two days would mean the loss of life and health for many and the revelation that Sam's real name was Samantha, a fact that she had successfully hidden for months. Sam and her friends, including the young man she was falling in love with, would wade through the bloodiest battle fought on American soil up to that point. They would never be the same after bloody Shiloh.

The Drummer's Call


Patricia Leppo - 2013
    Josh is a typical fourteen-year-old whose days are consumed with video games, drum lessons, school and friends. While visiting his great-aunt's historic inn in Dover, TN, he is thrust back to the year 1862, a time before electricity, running water, telephones or automobiles. To make matters worse, the country is embroiled in the Civil War. Trapped in the past, Josh has no choice but to become involved.

Calamity at Chancellorsville


Mathew W. Lively - 2013
    Stonewall Jackson led his Second Corps around the unsuspecting Army of the Potomac on one of the most daring flank marches in history. His surprise flank attack launched with the five simple words You can go forward, then collapsed a Union corps in one of the most stunning accomplishments of the war. Flushed with victory, Jackson decided to continue attacking into the night. He and members of his staff rode beyond the lines to scout the ground while his units reorganized. However, Southern soldiers mistook the riders for Union cavalry and opened fire, mortally wounding Jackson at the apogee of his military career. One of the rounds broke Jackson s left arm, which required amputation. A week later Old Jack was dead.Calamity at Chancellorsville: The Wounding and Death of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson is the first full-length examination of Jackson s final days. Contrary to popular belief, eyewitnesses often disagreed regarding key facts relating to the events surrounding Jackson s reconnaissance, wounding, harrowing journey out of harm s way, medical care, and death. These accounts, for example, conflict regarding where Jackson was fatally wounded and even the road he was on when struck. If he wasn t wounded where history has recorded, then who delivered the fatal volley? How many times did he fall from the stretcher? What medical treatment did he receive? What type of amputation did Dr. Hunter McGuire perform? Did Jackson really utter his famous last words, "Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees"? What was the cause of his death?Author Mathew W. Lively utilizes extensive primary source material and a firm understanding of the area to re-examine the gripping story of the final days of one of the Confederacy s greatest generals, and how Southerners came to view Jackson's death during and after the conflict. Dr. Lively begins his compelling narrative with a visit from Jackson s family prior to the battle of Chancellorsville, then follows his course through the conflict to its fatal outcome.Instead of revising history, Dr. Lively offers up a fresh new perspective. Calamity at Chancellorsville will stand as the definitive account of one of the most important and surprisingly misunderstood events of the American Civil War.REVIEWS "The definitive book on the last days of Stonewall Jackson." Frank A. O Reilly, author of The Fredericksburg Campaign: Winter War on the Rappahannock "The fatally wounded body of Stonewall Jackson has generated more controversy among historians than any of his famous military campaigns, and Mathew Lively dissects the events surrounding the general s wounding and his medical care with surgical precision. Much of the established knowledge about Stonewall Jackson s final days comes under question because of Lively s microcosmic inspection of remarkable source material and research. Calamity at Chancellorsville gives us new angles from which to observe a deadly moment in Confederate history, one that is infused with high drama and intense action." Peter S. Carmichael, Fluhrer Professor, Gettysburg College "Stonewall Jackson's wounding at Chancellorsville is one of the pivotal dramas of the Civil War. Dr. Mathew Lively is uniquely qualified to explore this tragic tale. Blending meticulous research and sparkling prose with the eye of a physician, Lively offers a fresh and compelling account of Jackson s last days in Calamity at Chancellorsville. In the process he humanizes the blue-eyed warrior, revealing valuable new insight on the cause of his death." W. Hunter Lesser, author of Rebels at the Gate

Abraham Lincoln Civil War Stories: Heartwarming Stories about Our Most Beloved President


Joe L. Wheeler - 2013
    And now, story archeologist Joe Wheeler has gathered—for the first time ever—the most beloved, the most deeply moving stories about Lincoln ever written. In this treasure you will dis­cover who Lincoln really was through stories that bring to life the powerful principles upon which America was founded. This rare and beautiful heirloom collection reveals the servant heart of Presi­dent Lincoln, his dedication to the people who served him, and his homespun humor and wisdom. These are the stories that build character and inspire convic­tion in those who read and hear them. Gathered for the very purpose of being passed from generation to generation, these delightful stories will become favor­ites of adults and children alike—as parents and grandparents read them again and again to their children and grandchildren. Collected over a lifetime from old magazines and publications—most pub­lished between the 1880s and the 1950s—these stories tell of the personal life of Lincoln, his tumultuous years during the Civil War, and the impact he had on the people who met him.

But for the Grace of God: A Novel of Compassion in a Time of War


Ginger Myrick - 2013
    By the spring of 1864, the conflict between North and South has raged on for years and still shows no sign of resolution. On her small farm in West Virginia, the young widow and her household have managed to remain untouched until a mysterious green-eyed soldier shows up, wounded and in desperate need of medical attention. Never able to turn away someone in need, Hannah risks everything to take in the stranger and tend to his injuries. Beau develops tender feelings toward Hannah, and she is equally smitten, but circumstances conspire to hinder their happiness. Beau is a Confederate soldier wanted for the murder of one of his own, and Hannah’s farm is a rest stop for fugitive slaves en route to freedom in the North. Will justice catch up with Beau and force him to pay for his crimes? Will he discover Hannah’s secret humanitarian efforts and betray her to the authorities? Or will they find a way to overcome their differences—to make peace, to live, and to love?

The Maps of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run Campaigns: An Atlas of the Battles and Movements in the Eastern Theater After Gettysburg, Including Rappahannock Station, Kelly's Ford, and Morton's Ford, July 1863- February 1864


Bradley M. Gottfried - 2013
    This careful study breaks down these campaigns (and all related operational maneuvers) into 13 map sets or "action-sections" enriched with 87 original full-page color maps. These spectacular cartographic creations bore down to the regimental and battery level.The Maps of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run Campaigns includes the actions at Auburn and Bristoe Station, where Meade's II Corps was nearly trapped and destroyed and the Confederates were caught by surprise and slaughtered; the seminal actions at Rappahannock Station and Kelly's Ford, where portions of Lee's army were surprised and overwhelmed; and the Mine Run Campaign, during which an aggressive Confederate division at the battle of Payne's Farm held back two full Federal corps and changed the course of the entire operation.At least one--and as many as twelve--maps accompany each "action-section." Opposite each map is a full facing page of detailed text with footnotes describing the units, personalities, movements, and combat (including quotes from eyewitnesses) depicted on the accompanying map, all of which make the story of these campaigns come alive.This original presentation offers readers a step-by-step examination through these long-overlooked but highly instructive campaigns. Coming on the heels of the fiasco that was Lee's Bristoe Station operation, the stunning Union successes at Kelly's Ford and Rappahannock Station demonstrated the weakened state of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia following the debilitating Gettysburg campaign. The Mine Run Operation that followed, with its extensive display of field works and trenches, foreshadowed the bloody fighting that would arrive with the spring weather of 1864 and highlighted once again Meade's methodical approach to battlefield operations that left the authorities in Washington wondering whether he possessed the tenacity to defeat Lee. This detailed coverage is augmented with fascinating explanatory notes. Detailed orders of battle, together with a bibliography and index complete this exciting new volume.Perfect for the easy chair or for walking hallowed ground, The Maps of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run Campaigns is a seminal work that, like Gottfried's earlier atlases on Gettysburg, First Bull Run, and Antietam, belongs on the bookshelf of every serious and casual student of the Civil War.

The Vacant Chair


Kaylea Cross - 2013
    Determined to ease the suffering of the wounded crowding the Union hospitals and honor the memory of the man she loved, she embarks on a career as a nurse. But then he arrives—a patient who makes her feel alive again in spite of her resolve to stay detached. Captain Justin Thompson understands the cost of war all too well, yet he felt compelled to fight for the Union his father died defending. Wounded at Cold Harbor and left to die at a military hospital, he owes his life to Brianna, who seems determined to guard her professional boundaries despite his best efforts to breach them. Just as he’s winning the battle for her heart, he’s forced to return to the front of a cruel war that could very well separate them forever.

Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War


Elizabeth R. Varon - 2013
    But as Elizabeth Varon reveals in this vividly narrated history, this rosy image conceals a seething debate over precisely what the surrender meant and what kind of nation would emerge from war. The combatants in that debate included the iconic Lee and Grant, but they also included a cast of characters previously overlooked, who brought their own understanding of the war's causes, consequences, and meaning. In Appomattox, Varon deftly captures the events swirling around that well remembered-but not well understood-moment when the Civil War ended. She expertly depicts the final battles in Virginia, when Grant's troops surrounded Lee's half-starved army, the meeting of the generals at the McLean House, and the shocked reaction as news of the surrender spread like an electric charge throughout the nation. But as Varon shows, the ink had hardly dried before both sides launched a bitter debate over the meaning of the war. For Grant, and for most in the North, the Union victory was one of right over wrong, a vindication of free society; for many African Americans, the surrender marked the dawn of freedom itself. Lee, in contrast, believed that the Union victory was one of might over right: the vast impersonal Northern war machine had worn down a valorous and unbowed South. Lee was committed to peace, but committed, too, to the restoration of the South's political power within the Union and the perpetuation of white supremacy. Lee's vision of the war resonated broadly among Confederates and conservative northerners, and inspired Southern resistance to reconstruction. Did America's best days lie in the past or in the future? For Lee, it was the past, the era of the founding generation. For Grant, it was the future, represented by Northern moral and material progress. They held, in the end, two opposite views of the direction of the country-and of the meaning of the war that had changed that country forever.

A Massacre in Memphis: The Race Riot That Shook the Nation One Year After the Civil War


Stephen V. Ash - 2013
    By the time the fires consuming black churches and schools were put out, forty-six freed people had been murdered. Congress, furious at this and other evidence of white resistance in the conquered South, launched what is now called Radical Reconstruction, policies to ensure the freedom of the region’s four million blacks—and one of the most remarkable experiments in American history.    Stephen V. Ash’s A Massacre in Memphis is a portrait of a Southern city that opens an entirely new view onto the Civil War and its aftermath. A momentous national event, the riot is also remarkable for being “one of the best-documented episodes of the American nineteenth century.” Yet Ash is the first to mine the sources available to full effect. Bringing postwar Memphis to vivid life, he takes us among newly arrived Yankees, former Rebels, boisterous Irish immigrants, and striving freed people, and shows how Americans of the period worked, prayed, expressed their politics, and imagined the future. And how they died: Ash’s harrowing and profoundly moving present-tense narration of the riot has the immediacy of the best journalism.    Told with nuance, grace, and a quiet moral passion, A Massacre in Memphis is Civil War–era history like no other.

The Illustrated Gettysburg Reader: An Eyewitness History of the Civil War?s Greatest Battle


Rod Gragg - 2013
    The Illustrated Gettysburg Reader: An Eyewitness History of the Civil War's Greatest Battle gathers letters, journals, articles and speeches from the people who lived through those legendary three days. Tied together with narrative by historian Rod Gragg and illustrated with a wealth of photographs and images, The Illustrated Gettysburg Reader will transport you to the battlefield, immersing you in the emotional intensity of the struggle of brother against brother for the future of the United States of America."Here they are penetrating the heart of a hostile country leaving their homes beyond broad rivers and the largest of the enemies armies while in front of them is gathering all of resistance that can be obtained by a power fruitful of every element of military power."—Confederate soldier T.G. Pollock on the 30th of June, 1863, the day before the Battle of Gettysburg

The Gray Ghost of Civil War Virginia: John S. Mosby


Jessica James - 2013
    The epitome of the Southern cavalier, Colonel Mosby was a charismatic officer whose small band of partisans outwitted and outfought the Union army on the fields and farmlands of northern Virginia. So great was the panic inspired by this one officer's military ingenuity, so prominent was the threat he created to the Union forces, that he came to be known in the north as more of a myth than a man. Award-winning historical fiction and Southern romance author Jessica James penned a unique look at this iconic figure as a way to share this real-life soldier's story with her fiction fans. John Mosby was the model for her fictional character Colonel Alexander Hunter in her novel NOBLE CAUSE (originally called SHADES OF GRAY). Rather than a dry biography of the Confederate hero, this book takes readers on a journey with a ragtag group of Rebels who threw aside the established rules of warfare, effectively using fear as their weapon of choice and surprise as their watchword. Read about this forgotten American Hero in the first of a series of books that look back on those who played a role in shaping our nation.

Disunion: Modern Historians Revisit and Reconsider the Civil War from Lincoln's Election to the Emancipation Proclamation


Ted Widmer - 2013
     Since its debut, The New York Times' acclaimed web journal entitled 'Disunion' has published hundreds of original articles and won multiple awards, including "Best History Website" from the New Media Institute and the History News Network. Following the chronology of the secession crisis and the Civil War, the contributors to Disunion, who include modern scholars, journalists, historians, and Civil War buffs, offer contemporary commentary and assessment of the Civil War as it unfolded chronologically. Now, this commentary has been gathered together and organized in one volume. In The New York Times: Disunion, historian Ted Widmer has curated more than 100 articles that span events beginning with Lincoln's presidential victory through the Emancipation Proclamation. Topics include everything from Walt Whitman's wartime diary to the bloody guerrilla campaigns in Missouri and Kansas. Esteemed contributors include William Freehling, Adam Goodheart, and Edward Ayers, among others. The book also compiles new essays that have not been published on the Disunion site by well-known historians such as David Blight, Gary Gallagher, and Drew Gilpin Faust. Topics include the perspective of African-American slaves and freed men on the war, the secession crisis in the Upper South, the war in the West (that is, past the Appalachians), the war in Texas, the international context, and Civil War-era cartography. Portraits, contemporary etchings, and detailed maps round out the book.

Jessie's War


Meggan Connors - 2013
    The outcast daughter of a famous inventor, Jessica White has struggled to salvage what little remains of her life. Then, one cold winter night, the lover she'd given up for dead returns, claiming the Union Army bought the plans for her father's last invention. But he's not the only one who lays claim to the device, for the Confederacy wants the invention as well. Both sides will kill to have it....And only he can save her. As an agent for the Union Army, Luke Bradshaw is a man who will use whomever and whatever is at his disposal in order to complete his mission. An attack by Confederate soldiers ensures that Jessie will turn to him for help, but Luke can't help but wonder about the secrets she keeps--and if those secrets will ultimately prove fatal.

Grant's Last Battle: The Story Behind the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant


Chris Mackowski - 2013
    . . the two-term president of the United States . . . the beloved ambassador of American goodwill around the globe . . . the respected New York financier Ulysses S. Grant was dying. The hardscrabble man who regularly smoked 20 cigars a day had developed terminal throat cancer. Thus began Grant s final battle a race against his own failing health to complete his Personal Memoirs in an attempt to secure his family s financial future. But the project evolved into something far more: an effort to secure the very meaning of the Civil War itself and how it would be remembered.The news of Grant s illness came swift on the heels of his financial ruin. Business partners had swindled his family out of everything but the money he and his wife had in their pockets and the family cookie jar.In this maelstrom of woe, Grant refused to surrender. Putting pen to paper, the hero of Appomattox embarked on his final campaign: an effort to write his memoirs before he died. The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant would cement his place as not only one of America s greatest heroes but also as one of its most sublime literary voices.Filled with personal intrigues and supported by a cast of colorful characters that included Mark Twain, William Vanderbilt, and P. T. Barnum, Grant s Last Battle recounts a deeply personal story as dramatic for Grant as any of his battlefield exploits.Author Chris Mackowski, Ph.D. has recounted Grant s battlefield achievements as a historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, and as an academic, he has studied Grant s literary career. His familiarity with the former president as a general and as a writer brings Grant s Last Battle to life with new insight, told with the engaging prose that has become the hallmark of the Emerging Civil War Series."

When the Wolf Came: The Civil War and the Indian Territory


Mary Jane Warde - 2013
    When the peoples of the Indian Territory found themselves in the midst of the American Civil War, squeezed between Union Kansas and Confederate Texas and Arkansas, they had no way to escape a conflict not of their choosing--and no alternative but to suffer its consequences. When the Wolf Came explores how the war in the Indian Territory involved almost every resident, killed many civilians as well as soldiers, left the country stripped and devastated, and cost Indian nations millions of acres of land. Using a solid foundation of both published and unpublished sources, including the records of Cherokee, Choctaw, and Creek nations, Mary Jane Warde details how the coming of the war set off a wave of migration into neighboring Kansas, the Red River Valley, and Texas. She describes how Indian Territory troops in Unionist regiments or as Confederate allies battled enemies--some from their own nations--in the territory and in neighboring Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas. And she shows how post-war land cessions forced by the federal government on Indian nations formerly allied with the Confederacy allowed the removal of still more tribes to the Indian Territory, leaving millions of acres open for homesteads, railroads, and development in at least ten states. Enhanced by maps and photographs from the Oklahoma Historical Society's photographic archives, When the Wolf Came will be welcomed by both general readers and scholars interested in the signal public events that marked that tumultuous era and the consequences for the territory's tens of thousands of native peoples.

Revenge


Christine Carminati - 2013
    Some were violent, greedy men looking for easy takings. They didn't plan on having to deal with Hannah. Hannah O'Reilly is a woman on a mission to hunt down the men who raided her Texas homestead. She will stop at nothing until every one of her attackers answers for his crimes -- even if she must risk her life, her place in society, and her immortal soul to do it. U. S. Marshal Hezekiah Coe must recapture the men his grandfather, a corrupt federal judge, set free -- even if it means partnering with an infamous female bounty hunter. Forced into an uneasy alliance, Hannah and Hezekiah battle renegade Comanche, vicious outlaws, and the undeniable attraction they feel for each other.

Haunted Dalton, Georgia


Connie Hall-Scott - 2013
    The Cherokees called it their Enchanted Land" before they were driven out through an American tragedy remembered as the Trail of Tears. As the gateway to the Civil War, Whitfield County hosted bloody battles and sacrificed many of its own. It is home to an array of spirits that, for reasons of their own, refuse to leave. The laughter of ghost children still echoes through the halls of the historic Wink Theatre. From the weeping girl of the former Hotel Dalton to long-dead marching ghost soldiers and beyond, Dalton abounds in paranormal activity. Join author Connie Hall-Scott on a journey through a host of spectral things that go bump in the night."

Simply Murder: The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862 (Emerging Civil War)


Chris Mackowski - 2013
    Confederates, fortified behind a stone wall along a sunken road, poured a hail of lead into them as they charged . . . and faltered . . . and died. “I had never before seen fighting like that, nothing approaching it in terrible uproar and destruction,” said one eyewitness to the slaughter. “It is only murder now.”The battle of Fredericksburg is usually remembered as the most lopsided Union defeat of the Civil War. It is sometimes called “Burnside’s folly,” after Union commander Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside who led the Army of the Potomac to ruin along the banks of the Rappahannock River. But the battle remains one of the most misunderstood and misremembered engagements of the war. Burnside started with a well-conceived plan and had every reason to expect victory. How did it go so terribly wrong?Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have worked for years along Fredericksburg’s Sunken Road and Stone Wall, and they’ve escorted thousands of visitors across the battlefield. Simply Murder not only recounts Fredericksburg’s tragic story of slaughter, but includes invaluable information about the battlefield itself and the insights they’ve learned from years of walking the ground.Simply Murder can be enjoyed in the comfort of one’s living room or as a guide on the battlefield itself. It is also the first release in the new “Emerging Civil War Series,” which offers compelling and easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important battles and issues.

Civil War Stories: A 150th Anniversary Collection


The Washington Post - 2013
    Raging from 1861-1865, the Battle Between the States has left a lasting imprint on the United States' collective psyche for 150 years. Civil WarStories: A 150th Anniversary Collection aggregates historical data with contemporary reflections, as journalists and historians put the bloody war into context: - A timeline of Lincoln's candidacy - and what may have happened if he had lost the election- An ode to West Virginia, which abandoned Virginia rather than secede from the Union- The obstacles faced by emancipated slaves- Women in the federal workforce - and disguised as men on the battlefields- The modern anti-slavery crusade of Frederick Douglass' great-great-great-grandsonPersonal stories of tragedy and triumph still resonate today. From biographical histories to examinations of the war's legacies, Civil War Stories: A 150th Anniversary Collection is a unique compilation of stories of when our nation was divided.

A Yankee Private's Civil War


Robert Hale Strong - 2013
    He not only survived to tell of his experiences, he provided the best and clearest insights into how the war looked and felt to an ordinary foot soldier. Written by the light of campfires and hastily scrawled while under fire, the Midwestern farm boy's notes formed the basis for his latter-day memoir.A Yankee Private's Civil War chronicles a soldier's path from starry-eyed volunteer to hardened veteran with a combination of brutal realism and unwavering good humor. Strong's vivid accounts of the intensity of battle and the horrors of war are punctuated by his stories of day-to-day survival tactics and vignettes recounting the quiet heroism of his comrades in arms. His keen observations and perceptions constitute a historical treasure and essential reading for all Civil War buffs.

Love Abideth Still: A Novel of the Civil War


Scott R. Rezer - 2013
    The War Between the States has raged for nearly two years. Five months after his death, the body of Sarah’s estranged husband, a Union soldier, finally comes home for burial in Philadelphia. Taylor’s burial, though, rather than putting her unresolved grief to rest, begins a journey that will not just test her faith, but will plumb the depths of her devotion to her dead husband. When anger and sorrow push her to the edge of despair, Sarah turns to the few letters sent to her by Taylor from the frontlines in a desperate need to understand the guilt she feels over his death. But, as the war continues to tear the nation asunder and rumors of a Confederate invasion threaten the North, Sarah’s own sense of patriotic duty begins to awaken. And with that newfound obligation, she discovers in the letters she once dismissed as weak attempts to convince her of his duty to the nation, that Taylor’s voice has the power to soften a heart grown bitter and cold from beyond the grave. Taylor's letters, though, do not tell the full story of his life as a soldier, a story Sarah will never know... From the bloody battlefields of Winchester and Bull Run to the quiet streets of Philadelphia, Love Abideth Still is a fictional story based upon the lives of the author’s Civil War ancestors whose sacrifice—like so many others who loved and lost during the War Between the States—has not been forgotten. It is a moving story of war and forgiveness, one in which a young woman discovers that it is possible to fall in love again with her husband even when separated from him by the finality of death.

For Cause and Country: A Study of the Affair at Spring Hill & the Battle of Franklin


Eric A. Jacobson - 2013
    

Never Ending Night


Tanya Stowe - 2013
    That night, he writes an epic anti-war poem called “Never-ending Night.” The next day, a cannonball explodes in front of him, but rather than walking through the gates of Heaven, Tyler steps into a modern-day Civil War reenactment. Confused by a world he can’t comprehend, Tyler has no choice but to rely on a beautiful and fascinating photojournalist for help.As Stacy Sutton watches Tyler emerge from the rising smoke of faux cannon fire, she’s amazed by the authenticity of his uniform and demeanor—and then he claims to be from the nineteenth century, a mere delusion according to doctors. But Stacy’s not convinced Tyler is delusional and sees helping him as her second chance—an opportunity to atone for the death of her partner...and her past. As the mystery surrounding Tyler’s appearance deepens, it threatens any hope they have of a future together, and Stacy finds she must discover whether the man she loves is a traveller through time or a mad man lost in his own delusions.

Jordan's War - 1861


B.K. Birch - 2013
    Jordan’s War is the story of Jordan Sinclair, a twelve year old boy whose family endures and eventually triumphs during one of the most turbulent times in American history.Virginia has just seceded from the Union. The Civil War has begun. With no slaves in the region, the Sinclair family attempts to carry on as if nothing has changed. But, even with their isolation from the battlefields, they cannot sustain neutrality as family and neighbors answer the Confederate call to arms. The harder they try not to align themselves to either side, the more the conflict is thrust upon them. In all of the confusion, Jordan learns that family loyalties can either save his life or get them all killed as lawlessness thrives and peace is a distant dream.

Gettysburg A History for the People


John D. Cox - 2013
    Cox brings to life the story of America's greatest battle. All of the drama of the conflict, with its tragedies and heroism, becomes real in its pages. The monumental decisions of the commanders are revealed, the self-sacrifice of the soldiers and the nightmares of the civilians, caught between the two armies, are vividly uncovered. From the start, Gettysburg: A History for the People pulls the reader into a gripping narrative, told with the knowledge of a professional, but with the vibrant touch of a master storyteller, that never lets go. Gettysburg: A History for the People reads like a novel.

American Zion: The Old Testament as a Political Text from the Revolution to the Civil War


Eran Shalev - 2013
    Shalev argues that the effort to shape the United States as a biblical nation reflected conflicting attitudes within the culture—proudly boastful on the one hand but uncertain about its abilities and ultimate destiny on the other. With great nuance, American Zion explores for the first time the meaning and lasting effects of the idea of the United States as a new Israel and sheds new light on our understanding of the nation’s origins and culture during the founding and antebellum decades.

Dawn Drums


Robert Walton - 2013
    Dawn Drums begins at this crucial time and its action coincides closely with the sequicentennial of the events it depicts. Told by the voices of Abraham Lincoln, Clara Barton, Almira Martin, General Grant, and an assorted host of other Civil War participants, including a small group of black "contrabands," Robert Walton's narrative offers an utterly unique and riveting view of the Civil War's last year. Dawn Drums will enable readers to clearly understand the appalling war that divided a nation. Despite the Civil War's horror and savagery, the main characters of this truly gripping, historical novel emerge as heroes who, even today, remain inspirational and noble.

Everlasting Light


Andrea Boeshaar - 2013
    Did he die in a Yankee prison? Was he buried in a shallow grave on a Virginia battlefield? Or has he turned his back on the specter of death and loss and sought solitude west of the Mississippi River, never to return home again? As Christmas nears, Alaina deflects the advances of a suitor in the neighboring county, choosing to cling instead to hope and her belief that Braeden will return. As winter’s chill settles upon her farm, Alaina cries out to God in one final Christmas Prayer. When loss lingers, love, for it is through heartbreak that God opens doorways to comfort others.

Lincoln's Citadel: The Civil War in Washington, DC


Kenneth J. Winkle - 2013
    Sprigg's boardinghouse on Capitol Hill. Known as Abolition House, Mrs. Sprigg's hosted lively dinner-table debates of antislavery politics by the congressional boarders. The unusually rapid turnover in the enslaved staff suggested that there were frequent escapes north to freedom from Abolition House, likely a cog in the underground railroad. These early years in Washington proved formative for Lincoln. In 1861, now in the White House, Lincoln could gaze out his office window and see the Confederate flag flying across the Potomac. Washington, DC, sat on the front lines of the Civil War. Vulnerable and insecure, the capital was rife with Confederate sympathizers. On the crossroads of slavery and freedom, the city was a refuge for thousands of contraband and fugitive slaves. The Lincoln administration took strict measures to tighten security and established camps to provide food, shelter, and medical care for contrabands. In 1863, a Freedman's Village rose on the grounds of the Lee estate, where the Confederate flag once flew.The president and Mrs. Lincoln personally comforted the wounded troops who flooded wartime Washington. In 1862, Lincoln spent July 4 riding in a train of ambulances carrying casualties from the Peninsula Campaign to Washington hospitals. He saluted the "One-Legged Brigade" assembled outside the White House as "orators," their wounds eloquent expressions of sacrifice and dedication. The administration built more than one hundred military hospitals to care for Union casualties.These are among the unforgettable scenes in Lincoln's Citadel, a fresh, absorbing narrative history of Lincoln's leadership in Civil War Washington. Here is the vivid story of how the Lincoln administration met the immense challenges the war posed to the city, transforming a vulnerable capital into a bastion for the Union.

Morgan's Great Raid: The Remarkable Expedition from Kentucky to Ohio (Civil War Series)


David Mowery - 2013
    One of the nation's most colorful leaders, Confederate general John Hunt Morgan, took his cavalry through enemy-occupied territory in three states in one of the longest offensives of the Civil War. The effort produced the only battles fought north of the Ohio River and reached farther north than any other regular Confederate force. With twenty-five maps and more than forty illustrations, Morgan's Raid historian David L. Mowery takes a new look at this unprecedented event in American history, one historians rank among the world's greatest land-based raids since Elizabethan times.

To Raise Up a Nation: John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and the Making of a Free Country


William S. King - 2013
    King has written an important history of African Americans’ own contributions and points of crossracial cooperation to end slavery in America. Beginning with the civil war along the border of Kansas and Missouri, the author traces the life of John Brown and the personal support for his ideas from elite New England businessmen, intellectuals such as Emerson and Thoreau, and African Americans, including his confidant, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. Throughout, King links events that contributed to the growing antipathy in the North toward slavery and the South’s concerns for its future, including Nat Turner’s insurrection, the Amistad affair, the Fugitive Slave law, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision. The author also effectively describes the debate within the African American community as to whether the U.S. Constitution was colorblind or if emigration was the right course for the future of blacks in America. Following Brown’s execution after the failed raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859, King shows how Brown’s vision that only a clash of arms would eradicate slavery was set into motion after the election of Abraham Lincoln. Once the Civil War erupted on the heels of Brown’s raid, the author relates how black leaders, white legislators, and military officers vigorously discussed the use of black manpower for the Union effort as well as plans for the liberation of the “veritable Africa” within the southern United States. Following the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863, recruitment of black soldiers increased and by war’s end they made up nearly ten percent of the Union army, and contributed to many important victories.To Raise Up a Nation: John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and the Making of a Free Country is a sweeping history that explains how the destruction of American slavery was not directed primarily from the counsels of local and national government and military men, but rather through the grassroots efforts of extraordinary men and women. As King notes, the Lincoln administration ultimately armed black Americans, as John Brown had attempted to do, and their role was a vital part in the defeat of slavery.

Civil War Battlegrounds: The Illustrated History of the War's Pivotal Battles and Campaigns


Richard Sauers - 2013
    From Fort Sumter to Gettysburg to Appomattox and points between, Sauers illuminates the path of the war, providing stories of the battles and key participants along with fascinating sidebars covering a variety of related topics. He also covers helpful visitor information for the battleground tourist, including phone numbers and websites, hours, parking details, admission fees, and available tours and programs. With its wealth of concise and engaging information, Civil War Battlegrounds lets you walk in the footsteps of the men and women who lived, fought, and died in this bloodiest of American conflicts.

A Most Unsettled State: First-Person Accounts of St. Louis During the Civil War


NiNi Harris - 2013
    Louis was under martial law. The city was divided to the core. A Most Unsettled State conveys this precarious dynamic through the pens of those who experienced it. Author NiNi Harris collects memoirs, letters, sermons, and accounts that reveal a critical time in a volatile place. Learn firsthand about the women who nursed wounded soldiers, the ministers who were appalled by slavery, and Southern sympathizers whose resentment grew as the Union gained control of St. Louis. The book contains eyewitness accounts of significant events that occurred in the streets, not to mention the writers' insights and feelings.

Abraham Lincoln: Presidential Fuck Saga


Catherine DeVore - 2013
    His sexual prowess is unmatched in the history of American presidents. When he gets word of a nefarious plot hatched by the insane Emperor of Japan, he must learn to use his most potent power--the power of his cock! After an intense regimen of ninja training, will America's greatest president--who also happens to be the Earth's greatest master of the sexual arts--be able to defeat the Emperor and face his destiny on the Moon?WARNING: This 11,000-word bundle contains all 3 of Catherine DeVore's wildly sexy tales of Abraham Lincoln's unknown sexual exploits! Adults only!

The Confederate Surrender at Greensboro: The Final Days of the Army of Tennessee, April 1865


Robert M. Dunkerly - 2013
    Long overshadowed by Appomattox, this event was equally important in ending the war, and is much more representative of how most Americans in 1865 experienced the conflict's end. The book includes a timeline, organizational charts, an order of battle, maps, and illustrations. It also uses many unpublished accounts and provides information on Confederate campsites that have been lost to development and neglect.

Something Gray


Phillip T. Hopersberger - 2013
     A frail boy, and a magnet for bullies, Mosby is a loser. That is until Aaron Burton, family slave and friend, teaches him to ride, hunt, and most importantly, how to fight back. His philosophy changes Mosby’s life, and his view on slavery. Although his Virginia family had always owned slaves, John’s friendship with Absalom, Aaron’s only son, puts Mosby at odds with his father…and the antebellum South. A true rebel among rebels, Mosby never wanted Virginia to leave the Union, but when secession arrived, along with his friend William’s body, riddled by Yankee bullets, his decision came easy. No stranger to tyrants, the Confederacy’s poor chances suited Mosby, but this war meant Aaron could lose much more. Mosby enlists, and takes Aaron and his philosophy to war. Ever faithful, Aaron serves Mosby in a fight that seems black and white, but by 1865 it is SOMETHING GRAY. Despite his victories, Mosby knows the South cannot win unless the odds change. His gutsy exploits behind enemy lines inspires a bold plan to end the war in one swift move, but can he pull it off before Lee’s army is beaten? Originally written as a screenplay by Phillip T. Hopersberger, but now converted here into an e-book for those who asked to read the rest of this riveting Civil War saga (a sample was briefly available at www.TotallyWriteousCopy.com), SOMETHING GRAY takes us back to our bitter national divorce and like our country, reveals a man both convinced and conflicted. "When you read the exploits of someone as audacious as Mosby, you can see it unfolding as a film...well, that's when you know that truth is really stranger than fiction and this should be made into a movie. Until then, we can watch it here on the written page." “In his much-anticipated new novel, XPOSURE, Phillip T. Hopersberger writes with the same vivid descriptions displayed in SOMETHING GRAY, but in a completely new direction. A supernatural thriller, XPOSURE will make you re-think what you knew you believed…and wish he hadn’t written something so close to our tomorrows.”

Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation


Caroline E. Janney - 2013
    In Remembering the Civil War, Caroline E. Janney examines how the war generation--men and women, black and white, Unionists and Confederates--crafted and protected their memories of the nation's greatest conflict. Janney maintains that the participants never fully embraced the reconciliation so famously represented in handshakes across stone walls. Instead, both Union and Confederate veterans, and most especially their respective women's organizations, clung tenaciously to their own causes well into the twentieth century. Janney explores the subtle yet important differences between reunion and reconciliation and argues that the Unionist and Emancipationist memories of the war never completely gave way to the story Confederates told. She challenges the idea that white northerners and southerners salved their war wounds through shared ideas about race and shows that debates about slavery often proved to be among the most powerful obstacles to reconciliation.

A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-21, 1864


Chris Mackowski - 2013
    Grant wrote to Washington after he'd opened his Overland Campaign in the spring of 1864. His resolve entirely changed the face of warfare. Promoted to command of all the Federal armies, the new lieutenant general chose to ride shotgun with the Army of the Potomac as it once again threw itself against the wily, audacious Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. But Grant did something no one else had done before: he threw his army at Lee over and over again. At Spotsylvania Court House, the second phase of the campaign, the two armies shifted from stalemate in the Wilderness to slugfest in the mud. Most commonly known for the horrific 22-hour hand-to-hand combat in the pouring rain at the Bloody Angle, the battle of Spotsylvania Court House actually stretched from May 8-21, 1864, fourteen long days of battle and maneuver. Spotsylvania Court House represents a chess match of immeasurable stakes between two master opponents: Grant, the irresistible force, hammering with his overwhelming numbers and unprecedented power, versus Lee, the immovable object, hunkered down behind the most formidable defensive works yet seen on the continent. This clash is detailed in A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-21, 1864. As former battlefield guides at Spotsylvania Court House, authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White know the ground as intimately as anyone today. With the knowledge and insight that comes from that familiarity, coupled with their command of the facts, Mackowski and White weave together a gripping narrative of one of the war's most consequential engagements. A Season of Slaughter is part of the new Emerging Civil War Series offering compelling, easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War's most important stories. The masterful storytelling is richly enhanced with hundreds of photos, illustrations, and maps.

Writing the Gettysburg Address


Martin P. Johnson - 2013
    . . . Are any six words better known, of greater import, or from a more crucial moment in our nation's history? And yet after 150 years the dramatic and surprising story of how Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address has never been fully told. Until now.Martin Johnson's remarkable work of historical and literary detection illuminates a speech, a man, and a moment in history that we thought we knew. Johnson guides readers on Lincoln's emotional and intellectual journey to the speaker's platform, revealing that Lincoln himself experienced writing the Gettysburg Address as an eventful process that was filled with the possibility of failure, but which he knew resulted finally in success beyond expectation.We listen as Lincoln talks with the cemetery designer about the ideals and aspirations behind the unprecedented cemetery project, look over Lincoln's shoulder as he rethinks and rewrites his speech on the very morning of the ceremony, and share his anxiety that he might not live up to the occasion. And then, at last, we stand with Lincoln at Gettysburg, when he created the words and image of an enduring and authentic legend.Writing the Gettysburg Address resolves the puzzles and problems that have shrouded the composition of Lincoln's most admired speech in mystery for fifteen decades. Johnson shows when Lincoln first started his speech, reveals the state of the document Lincoln brought to Gettysburg, traces the origin of the false story that Lincoln wrote his speech on the train, identifies the manuscript Lincoln held while speaking, and presents a new method for deciding what Lincoln's audience actually heard him say.Ultimately, Johnson shows that the Gettysburg Address was a speech that grew and changed with each step of Lincoln's eventful journey to the podium. His two-minute speech made the battlefield and the cemetery into landmarks of the American imagination, but it was Lincoln's own journey to Gettysburg that made the Gettysburg Address.

Hostile Seas: A Mission in Pirate Waters


J.L. Savidge - 2013
    Not only were ships carrying goods to North America and Europe affected, but also vessels entrusted with food aid for a Somali population suffering the effects of prolonged drought and civil war.In response, the Canadian government redirected naval frigate HMCS Ville de Québec from the Mediterranean Sea to Somali waters to escort pirate-menaced vessels carrying World Food Programme aid to Mogadishu. Told from the perspective of a ship's officer, Hostile Seas is a personal account of life on board a deployed navy ship that explores the tension between military imperatives and individual needs as a succession of hijackings brings into focus the reality of Somali piracy.

In the Land of Cotton


Maryann Austin - 2013
    In the Land of Cotton is the story of Della Cotton, a young girl who assumes her dead brother's identity and fights in the American Civil War.

The Franklin-Nashville Campaign: The History of the Civil War Campaign that Destroyed the Confederate Army of Tennessee


Charles River Editors - 2013
    Thomas’ efforts back to Tennessee to protect Union supply lines and stop the offensive mounted by Confederate general John Bell Hood. Hood had broken away from Atlanta and was trying to compel Sherman to follow him, thus diverting him from his intended path of destruction. With Sherman marching east toward the sea, he directed Thomas to try to block Hood around Nashville. In late November, the Army of the Ohio, being led by Thomas’ principal subordinate John Schofield, all but blindly stumbled into Hood’s forces, and it was only through luck that some of them had not been bottled up before they could regroup together. Receiving word of Union troop movement in the Nashville area, General Hood sent for his generals while attempting to hold off Schofield’s advance. Hood knew that if Schofield reached Thomas’ position, their combined armies would number more than twice his. Though the Confederates successfully blocked Schofield’s route to Nashville, the Union general managed to execute an all-night maneuver that brought him to Franklin, about 18 miles south of Nashville. On November 30, the Union army began digging in around Franklin, and that afternoon Hood ordered a frontal assault on the dug in Union army which deeply upset his own officers. After repeated frontal assaults failed to create a gap in the Union lines, Schofield withdrew his men across the river on the night of November 30, successfully escaping Hood’s army. Meanwhile, Hood had inflicted nearly 8,000 casualties upon his army (men the Confederacy could scarcely afford to lose), while the Union lost about a quarter of that. Despite practically wrecking his army, which was now only about 25,000 strong, Hood marched his battered army to a position outside Nashville, Tennessee, where he took up defensive positions while awaiting reinforcements from Texas. On December 1, General Thomas sent word to Grant that he had “retired to the fortifications around Nashville until I can get my cavalry equipped”, a reference to the fact that Forrest’s cavalry had more than double the manpower of the Union cavalry. But Thomas also added that “if Hood attacks our position, he would be seriously damaged, but if he makes no attack until our cavalry can be equipped, [I] or General Schofield will move against him at once.” The following day Grant wired back, “If Hood is permitted to remain quietly about Nashville, you will lose all the road back to Chattanooga, and possibly have to abandon the line of the Tennessee. Should he attack you it is all well; but if he does not, you should attack him before he fortifies. Arm and put in the trenches your quartermaster’s employees, citizens, etc.” Even with Grant constantly urging him forward, Thomas held back for nearly two weeks, partly because of a bad ice storm, and his delay nearly resulted in having Grant remove him from command. When it was clear reinforcements wouldn’t arrive by December 15, Thomas finally devised a complex two-pronged attack that feinted at Hood’s right flank while bringing overwhelming force on the left flank. During the two day battle, Thomas effectively destroyed Hood’s command, inflicting about 8,000 more Confederate casualties while losing less than half that.

War Photographs Taken on the Battlefields of the Civil War


Matthew B. Brady - 2013
    The photographs within these pages document the war that united America as one.These rare shots were taken in the middle of the battlefield during the earliest days of photography. Selected from a collection of seven thousand original negatives, these historic photos capture nearly every aspect of Civil War life. Among these photos are images of camps sprawling across acres, soldiers at their battlements, firing of heavy artillery, the aftermath of battle, and the terror that these young men faced. See first-hand of Union and Confederate officers strategizing their next moves, and Abraham Lincoln addressing his Union commanders.Originally released from the private collection of Edward Bailey Eaton in 1907, this edition is a must have for any Civil War buff or historian. No collection can be considered complete without these photographs by Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner, as well as the meticulous passages that put the images in illuminating context.

Northern Temptress (American Heroes)


Nicole McCaffrey - 2013
    When an uncommonly handsome rebel officer finds her tending the wounded in his battlefield, he takes her for a spy until she confesses her darkest secret; her brother fights for the south. He vows to find her brother and insists on escorting her home. But Alexa already has enough gossip attached to her name thanks to a scandalous divorce; she doesn't need to be seen keeping company with the enemy at a late hour. Major Caleb McKenna, CSA, has grown weary of war and bloodshed. Dreams of glory and valor are long gone, as is the memory of his beloved fiancee back home in Georgia. Try as he might, he can't recall her face. Instead, it's the bewitching image of Alexa Winters that haunts his every thought. Her stubborn refusal to show weakness is put to the test when he brings news of her missing brother. His attempt to comfort the stoic beauty quickly engulfs them in a firestorm of passion, leaving Caleb torn between a promise made to the gentle belle awaiting his return - and an emerald-eyed, jet-haired Northern temptress.When the major is gravely wounded, Alexa comes to his aide. Hiding a Confederate officer in a house filled with recuperating Union soldiers is risky... but fighting their growing desire is a battle they can't afford to lose.

Leadership Lessons from the Battle of Gettysburg (Historical Lessons for Modern Leaders)


Coyle Jr, Tom - 2013
    This book analyzes key points in this battle and captures the key leadership and communication lessons that modern leaders can learn from and apply in all aspects of their personal and professional lives. Readers will learn valuable lessons, including the need to clearly state your goals, methods for holding people accountable for their actions, and addressing concerns with senior management. For the history buff, this book also features interesting historical anecdotes and challenges conventional wisdom regarding some of the main generals features in this battle, particularly Robert E. Lee.

The War Came By Train: The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad During The Civil War


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

Journey to Glory: A Story of a Civil War Soldier and his Dog


Haley Whitehall - 2013
    This is the defining moment of his generation and he wants his chance to achieve glory. His loyal dog Sam won't be parted from him. Though he thinks human warfare is madness, he becomes the mascot for the Georgia regiment. His job is to keep the soldiers company and raise morale until Ethan's first battle gives him a more important mission.Will Sam follow Ethan only to find the grave? And who will achieve glory in this Civil War tale?This story can be enjoyed by tweens and adults alike. This 16,000-word story has clean language but some violence as it takes place during a war.

National Geographic's The Civil War


National Geographic Society - 2013
    Full of maps, information graphics, timelines, and archival photographs to illuminate and educate, the ebook also highlights the many inventions that came as a result of the war. Civil War buffs and history-lovers alike will enjoy this thrilling new ebook that spotlights an important period in American history.

A Day Long To Be Remembered— Lincoln in Gettysburg


Michael Burlingame - 2013
    

Veterans North and South: The Transition from Soldier to Civilian After the American Civil War


Paul A. Cimbala - 2013
    What was it like to witness--and participate in--the horrors of a war that lasted four years and claimed over half a million lives, and then emerge as a survivor into a drastically changed world? Veterans North and South: The Transition from Soldier to Civilian after the American Civil War takes readers back to this unimaginable time through the words of Civil War soldiers who fought on both sides, illuminating their profound, life-changing experiences during the war and in the postbellum period.The book covers the period from the surrender of the armies of the Confederacy to the return of the veterans to their homes. It follows them through their readjustment to civilian life and to family life while addressing their ability--and in some cases, inability--to become productive members of society. By surveying Civil War veterans' individual stories, readers will gain an in-depth understanding of these soldiers' sacrifices and comprehend how these discrete experiences coalesced to form America's memory of this war as a nation.

In Hospital and Camp


Sophronia E. Bucklin - 2013
     In this 1869 book, she spares the reader no detail while humanizing what would otherwise be just statistics of casualties. She and her sister nurses cared for Union and Confederate, black and white, dressed their wounds and held their hands as they died. But she also has stories of hope and happy endings. Like her comrades, they didn't always play by the rules but did what they thought best for the soldiers. She volunteered for service at Gettysburg. She heard the cannons up close and had shrapnel and minnie balls rip through the canvas of her hospital tent. For less than you'd spend on gas going to the library, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale: The Battle of Chickamauga, September 18-20, 1863


William Lee White - 2013
    The battlefield consisted of a nearly impenetrable, vine-choked forest around Chickamauga Creek. Unable to see beyond their immediate surroundings, officers found it impossible to exercise effective command, and the engagement deteriorated into what many participants later called a soldier s battle. It was, explained Union General John Turchin, Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale. The stakes were high: control of Chattanooga, the Gateway City to the Deep South. The two-day battle of Chickamauga was the only major victory of the war for the ill-starred Confederate Army of Tennessee, which managed to break through on the second day and drive the Union army off the field in a wild rout. The victory, however, left a legacy of dashed hopes for Braxton Bragg and his Confederate army. Ironically, Bragg won the costly victory but lost the city, while Union commander William Rosecrans lost the battle but somehow managed to hold the city which President Lincoln considered as important as the Confederate capital of Richmond. Despite its importance, however, Chickamauga has been largely overlooked and is rife with myths and misunderstandings.Author William Lee White has spent most of his life on the Chickamauga battlefield, taking thousands of visitors through the wooded landscape and telling the story of the bloodiest engagement in the Western Theater. Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale describes the tragic events of Chickamauga, but also includes many insights about often-neglected aspects of the fighting that White has gained from his many years studying the battle and exploring its scenic landscape.Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale can be enjoyed in the comfort of one s favorite armchair or as a battlefield guide. It is part of the new Emerging Civil War Series, which offers compelling, easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War s most important stories. The masterful storytelling is richly enhanced with more than one hundred photos, illustrations, and maps.REVIEWS "An excellent book that provides a general overview and gives enough detail for more knowledgeable readers."- Civil War News"Those who want a relatively quick read with a level of detail that is more intermediate will appreciate many of the book's features."- Civil War Book Review"

Beneath Hallowed Ground


Steven P. Locklin - 2013
    Treachery. Treasure.Lieutenant Jackson Prescott, having just survived the cornfield at Antietam in September of 1862, is tasked by President Lincoln to infiltrate a Confederacy group that has obtained five tons of gold for their side.In the present, the violent death of an FBI informant thrusts Special Agent Jason Sparks into a desperate search for the very same lost gold shipment — and his failure could mean his daughter’s life.Two men separated by one hundred and fifty years face murder and betrayal while they fight to complete their missions. Two men, linked by a vast cache of gold... and the same piece of hallowed ground.

Plantation Nation


Mercedes King - 2013
    Leaving her home and all she's ever known, she heads to Washington, D.C. and joins the Union Army--disguised as a young man. Despite the challenges and hardships, she serves as a soldier, nurse, and even spy. But what becomes even more dangerous for Emma is falling in love for the first time.

A Guide to Abraham Lincoln


Higher Read - 2013
    A statue of Lincoln is never too hard to come across in most major American cities.The image of the tall, stark man with the big stove top hat comes easily, even if you know little else about him. You may know that he issued the Gettysburg Address or the Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War, even if you aren’t 100 percent clear on the particulars of those documents.If you’re reading A Guide to Abraham Lincoln, it’s because you want to know more about the man than the caricature portrayed alongside Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. Perhaps you want to save yourself any embarrassment the next time he comes up in conversation with friends, family, or colleagues. With this book you’re on your way to gaining a practical understanding of Abraham Lincoln, his family and background, early life, and the country he inherited as president.A Guide to Abraham Lincoln is designed to give you a quick, solid understanding of everything you need to know about the story behind the 16th president of the United States of America. Use it to fill in the gaps in what you know about Abraham Lincoln, or use it as a springboard for learning more about something that interests you. The wonder of history is that you can go as deep as you like; there is always more to discover.-via Amazon.com

Lee's Army During the Overland Campaign: A Numerical Study


Alfred C. Young - 2013
    Grant and Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Virginia during the Overland Campaign has not until recently received the same degree of scrutiny as other Civil War battles. The first round of combat between the two renowned generals spanned about six weeks in May and early June 1864. The major skirmishes--Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor--rivaled any other key engagement in the war. While the strength and casualties in Grant's army remain uncontested, historians know much less about Lee's army. Nonetheless, the prevailing narrative depicts Confederates as outstripped nearly two to one, and portrays Grant suffering losses at a rate nearly double that of Lee. As a result, most Civil War scholars contend that the campaign proved a clear numerical victory for Lee but a tactical triumph for Grant.Questions about the power of Lee's army stem mainly from poor record keeping by the Confederates as well as an inordinate number of missing or lost battle reports. The complexity of the Overland Campaign, which consisted of several smaller engagements in addition to the three main clashes, led to considerable historic uncertainty regarding Lee's army. Significant doubts persist about the army's capability at the commencement of the drive, the amount of reinforcements received, and the total of casualties sustained during the entire campaign and at each of the major battles.In Lee's Army during the Overland Campaign, Alfred C. Young III addresses this deficiency by providing for the first time accurate information regarding the Confederate side throughout the conflict. The results challenge prevailing assumptions, showing clearly that Lee's army stood far larger in strength and size and suffered considerably higher casualties than previously believed.

The True Story Behind Lincoln's Gettysburg Address


Jennifer Armstrong - 2013
    It wasn’t even much a speech, really. Just a few remarks. Not meant to be remembered. Yet 150 years later, those few remarks have been remembered. How come? What was the true meaning behind them? Where did they come from? Why is it so important that we never forget what President Lincoln said on that cold November day? Originally published as A Three-Minute Speech, this concise, illustrated exploration of a momentous historical event is both fascinating and easy to read.

Lincoln and Lee at Antietam- The Cost of Freedom


Robert Child - 2013
    Maxwell, offer educated insight into the bloodiest day in American history in Robert Child's revealing look at The Battle of Antietam. With more casualties than The Mexican War, The Spanish-American War, The American Revolution, and the War of 1812 combined, this violent confrontation between the forces of Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee would go down in the history books as the single most devastating battle fought on American soil. As President Lincoln seeks to claim the battle that will enable him to issue the Emancipation Proclamation and put an end to slavery in the South, Lee hatches a plan to invade the North and claim victory for Confederate forces. The ensuing confrontation that took place in Sharpsburg, Maryland in September, 1862 would result in casualties that dwarfed even that of D-Day during World War II.

1863: Lincoln's Pivotal Year


Harold HolzerBarnet Schechter - 2013
    Rather than remaining the highlight of the coming months, however, this monumental act marked only the beginning of the most pivotal year of Lincoln’s presidency and the most revolutionary twelve months of the entire Civil War. In recognition of the sesquicentennial of this tumultuous time, prominent Civil War scholars explore the events and personalities that dominated 1863 in this enlightening volume, providing a unique historical perspective on a critical period in American history. Several defining moments of Lincoln’s presidency took place in 1863, including the most titanic battle ever to shake the American continent, which soon inspired the most famous presidential speech in American history. The ten essays in this book explore the year’s important events and developments, including the response to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation; the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and other less-well-known confrontations; the New York City draft riots; several constitutional issues involving the war powers of President Lincoln; and the Gettysburg Address and its continued impact on American thought. Other topics include the adaptation of photography for war coverage; the critical use of images; the military role of the navy; and Lincoln’s family life during this fiery trial.  With an informative introduction by noted Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer and a chronology that places the high-profile events of 1863 in context with cultural and domestic policy advances of the day, this remarkable compendium opens a window into a year that proved decisive not only for the Civil War and Lincoln’s presidency but also for the entire course of American history.

Fort Harrison and the Battle of Chaffin's Farm:: To Surprise and Capture Richmond


Douglas Crenshaw - 2013
    Lee's army and capturing Richmond. The Confederate defenders were vastly outnumbered; many were inexperienced and initially without trusted leadership. Fort Harrison and the other works at Chaffin's Farm held the key to the Confederate defenses. The drama that ensued was a battle between the Confederates' resiliency and the Union's ability to capitalize on one of its greatest opportunities. Join historian Doug Crenshaw as he chronicles the events of an often-forgotten episode of Civil War history. Through gripping firsthand accounts, Crenshaw follows the action through the eyes of the men who fought at Fort Harrison and the Battle of Chaffin's Farm. Experience the terror and heroism displayed on both sides of the battle line in this harrowing tale of war.

Civil War: The Conflict That Created Modern America


Peter Chrisp - 2013
    From the opening shots fired at Fort Sumter, to the decisive Battle of Gettysburg and the assassination of Lincoln, this book brings the story of the Civil War to life.

John Brown Illustrated: The Fight Against Slavery


Erica DeWitte - 2013
     John Brown was a driven man on a mission to abolish slavery. On October 16, 1859, he commanded twenty-one black and white men on a raid of the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Brown planned to seize 100,000 weapons and cause a slave uprising while hiding and traveling south along the Blue Ridge Mountains. His operation was foiled when local farmers, townspeople and Marines led by Robert E. Lee trapped the raiders in the arsenal’s fire engine house. Brown and his militia faced a bloody battle to the very end. The book includes passages on: • John Brown's family life. • Frederick Douglass’ participation. • Harpers Ferry history. • The Underground Railroad. • Secret Six involvement. • The meaning of Bloody Kansas. • Franklin Pierce’s presidency. • Colonel Robert E. Lee commanding troops. • Lieutenant Israel Green’s bravery. • The fighting at Harpers Ferry.

Her Lovely Colors


Mark Butler - 2013
    A sprawling estate, lavish home and dozens of slaves are his entitlements. A Northern sympathizer, he must forego the life of luxury and follow his heart into the fires of combat.Sold to new owners, the mulatto slave Lucy is beginning to believe in a better life. Leaving her harsh past behind her, she embraces her new life as a seamstress. But then she meets Tanner Lawson, handsome and kind, and a future slave owner. She admires Tanner from afar, yearning for a love both impossible and forbidden.Separated by class, education, skin color and a terrible war, they refuse to give up on each other. Tanner cannot forget the striking young seamstress who has sewn her soul on his heart. Lucy’s mind and body ache for Tanner, but she can never share his life. The world is changing, however; the very fabric of society is getting a new identity, new colors.

Tell It With Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Shaw Memorial


Sarah Greenough - 2013
    Although the regiment suffered great losses, the Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Infantry legitimized the idea of blacks serving in the military, and Lincoln considered their sacrifice a turning point in the Civil War. Twenty years later, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens began work on a bronze memorial for this heroic troop, which was installed on the Boston Common in 1897.Tell It With Pride explores the enduring significance of this beloved monument. Original daguerreotypes, carte-de-visite portraits, and a full listing of the regiment’s members, along with vintage and contemporary artworks by Matthew Brady, Lewis Hine, and Carrie Mae Weems tell the story of the legacy of the Battle of Fort Wagner and the role of photography in memorializing the regiment then and now.

The Visitor 1862


Barbara Svetlick - 2013
    When the war broke out in the South, she was on the verge of coming out in society as a beautiful obedient daughter with dreams of marriage and children. However, destiny had been waiting a long time for her and once she stepped through the doors of the haunted Natchez plantation her life would never be ordinary or peaceful. 1862 takes you through her journey into the past with Conrad who is trying to lift a curse placed on his family as she opens up to feelings of desire and confusion.

Postmarked: Bleeding Kansas


Chad Lawhorn - 2013
    Edward and Sarah Fitch were on the frontlines of the anti-slavery movement in America. They were in Lawrence, Kan. when William Quantrill and his raiders committed the greatest civilian atrocity of the war by burning the town and killing more than 180 defenseless civilians. More than 150 letters from the couple give history buffs new insight into the bitter, personal battles that fueled the flames of war. A great collection for anyone who wants a complete understanding of the Civil War.

The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade


Matt D. Childs - 2013
    Free and enslaved blacks alike crafted the necessary materials to support transoceanic commerce and labored as stevedores, carters, sex workers, and boarding-house keepers. Even though Africans continued to be exchanged as chattel, urban frontiers allowed a number of enslaved blacks to negotiate the right to hire out their own time, often greatly enhancing their autonomy within the Atlantic commercial system.In The Black Urban Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade, eleven original essays by leading scholars from the United States, Europe, and Latin America chronicle the black experience in Atlantic ports, providing a rich and diverse portrait of the ways in which Africans experienced urban life during the era of plantation slavery. Describing life in Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Africa, this volume illuminates the historical identity, agency, and autonomy of the African experience as well as the crucial role Atlantic cities played in the formation of diasporic cultures. By shifting focus away from plantations, this volume poses new questions about the nature of slavery in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, illustrating early modern urban spaces as multiethnic sites of social connectivity, cultural incubation, and political negotiation.Contributors: Trevor Burnard, Mariza de Carvalho Soares, Matt D. Childs, Kevin Dawson, Roquinaldo Ferreira, David Geggus, Jane Landers, Robin Law, David Northrup, Joao Jose Reis, James H. Sweet, Nicole von Germeten.

Letters from a Shoebox: The Civil War Correspondence of John Huffman, David Huffman and William Bowman


Jim Dohren - 2013
    In Letters from a Shoebox, Jim unveils his findings from many years of study of the correspondence, including the context and meaning of them. The authors of these letter include: William Bowman - a private in the 126th Ohio Volunteers John J. Huffman - a private in the 85th Indiana Volunteers David L Huffman - a sergeant in the 8th Indiana Volunteers Matilda Huffman - sister-in-law to John & David Huffman C J Huffman - sister of John & David Huffman Eve Ann Huffman - sister of John & David Huffman Ruth Davy - friend of Eve Ann Huffman Events mentioned and places visited include Parkersburg and Martinsburg, WV, Danville, KY, Tullahoma, TN, Battle of Chickamauga, Fosterville, TN, Kingston, GA, Camp Sumter (Andersonville Prison), New Cumberland, OH, Atlanta, GA, Sherman's March, Johnston's Surrender, Goldsboro, NC, Raleigh, NC and Indianapolis, IN.

Home Front: Daily Life in the Civil War North


Newberry Library - 2013
    Paintings and photographs, plays and movies, novels, poetry, and songs portray the war as a battle over the future of slavery, often focusing on Lincoln’s determination to save the Union, or highlighting the brutality of brother fighting brother. Battles and battlefields occupy us, too: Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg all conjure up images of desolate landscapes strewn with war dead. Yet the frontlines were not the only landscapes of the war. Countless civilians saw their daily lives upended while the entire nation suffered. Home Front: Daily Life in the Civil War North reveals this side of the war as it happened, comprehensively examining the visual culture of the Northern home front. Through contributions from leading scholars from across the humanities, we discover how the war influenced household economies and the cotton economy; how the absence of young men from the home changed daily life; how war relief work linked home fronts and battle fronts; why Indians on the frontier were pushed out of the riven nation’s consciousness during the war years; and how wartime landscape paintings illuminated the nation’s past, present, and future.A companion volume to a collaborative exhibition organized by the Newberry Library and the Terra Foundation for American Art, Home Front is the first book to expose the visual culture of a world far removed from the horror of war yet intimately bound to it.

Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War


Rachel A. Shelden - 2013
    Yet, in Washington Brotherhood, Rachel Shelden paints a more nuanced portrait of Washington as a less fractious city with a vibrant social and cultural life. Politicians from different parties and sections of the country interacted in a variety of day-to-day activities outside traditional political spaces and came to know one another on a personal level. Shelden shows that this engagement by figures such as Stephen Douglas, John Crittenden, Abraham Lincoln, and Alexander Stephens had important consequences for how lawmakers dealt with the sectional disputes that bedeviled the country during the 1840s and 1850s--particularly disputes involving slavery in the territories.Shelden uses primary documents--from housing records to personal diaries--to reveal the ways in which this political sociability influenced how laws were made in the antebellum era. Ultimately, this Washington bubble explains why so many of these men were unprepared for secession and war when the winter of 1860-61 arrived.

The Civil War in 50 Objects


Harold Holzer - 2013
    Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer sheds new light on the war by examining fifty objects from the New-York Historical Society’s acclaimed collection. A daguerreotype of an elderly, dignified ex-slave, whose unblinking stare still mesmerizes; a soldier’s footlocker still packed with its contents; Grant’s handwritten terms of surrender at Appomattox—the stories these objects tell are rich, poignant, sometimes painful, and always fascinating. They illuminate the conflict from all perspectives—Union and Confederate, military and civilian, black and white, male and female—and give readers a deeply human sense of the war. With an introduction from Pulitzer Prize winner Eric Foner and more than eighty photographs, The Civil War in 50 Objects is the perfect companion for readers and history fans to commemorate the 150th anniversaries of both the Battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Ragtime, The March, and Homer & Langley: Three Bestselling Novels


E.L. Doctorow - 2013
    L. Doctorow has been hailed as “a writer of dazzling gifts and boundless imaginative energy” (Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker), “a virtuosic storyteller with enormous range” (People), and “a national treasure” (George Saunders). He has achieved a distinguished standing in American letters with his profound fiction, novels of great inventive power.   The three bestsellers in this eBook bundle are classic Doctorow. From the defining moments of the Civil War to the heady days of the young twentieth century, the subjects and themes herein span, in the words of Don DeLillo, “the reach of American possibility, in which plain lives take on the cadences of history.”  RAGTIME “An extraordinarily deft, lyrical, rich novel that catches the spirit of the country . . . in a fluid musical way that is as original as it is satisfying.”—The New Yorker   One lazy Sunday afternoon in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside the home of an affluent American family. Almost magically, the line between fact and fiction, between real and invented characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J. P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata slip in and out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow’s brilliant fictional creations, including an immigrant Jewish peddler and a ragtime pianist from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice brings this shimmering masterpiece to a shocking climax. THE MARCH “Spellbinding . . . a ferocious re-imagining of the past that returns it to us as something powerful and strange.”—Time  In 1864, Union general William Tecumseh Sherman marched his sixty thousand troops through Georgia to the sea, and then up into the Carolinas. The army fought off Confederate forces, demolished cities, and accumulated a borne-along population of freed blacks and white refugees until all that remained was the dangerous transient life of the dispossessed and the triumphant. In Doctorow’s hands the great march becomes a floating world, a nomadic consciousness, and an unforgettable reading experience with awesome relevance to our own times.  HOMER & LANGLEY “Beautiful and haunting . . . one of literature’s most unlikely picaresques, a road novel in which the rogue heroes can’t seem to leave home.”—The Boston Globe  Homer and Langley Collyer are brothers—the one blind and deeply intuitive, the other damaged into madness by mustard gas in the Great War. They live as recluses in their once grand Fifth Avenue mansion, hoarding the daily newspapers as research for Langley’s proposed dateless newspaper whose reportage will be as prophecy. Even though they want nothing more than to shut out the world, history seems to pass through their cluttered house in the persons of immigrants, prostitutes, society women, government agents, gangsters, jazz musicians . . . and their housebound lives are fraught with odyssean peril as they struggle to survive and create meaning for themselves.

Lines in Long Array: A Civil War Commemoration: Poems and Photographs, Past and Present


David C. Ward - 2013
    Smith, and C. D. Wright. Also includes historic poems by Ethel Lynn Beers, Ambrose Bierce, George H. Boker, Emily Dickinson, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Julia Ward Howe, Herman Melville, Francis Orray Ticknor, Henry Timrod, Walt Whitman, and John Greenleaf Whittier.