Best of
Civil-War

2016

William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life


James Lee McDonough - 2016
    Yet Sherman proved far more complex than his legendary military tactics reveal. James Lee McDonough offers fresh insight into a man tormented by the fear that history would pass him by, who was plagued by personal debts, and who lived much of his life separated from his family. As a soldier, Sherman evolved from a spirited student at West Point into a general who steered the Civil War’s most decisive campaigns, rendered here in graphic detail. Lamenting casualties, Sherman sought the war’s swift end by devastating Southern resources in the Carolinas and on his famous March to the Sea. This meticulously researched biography explores Sherman’s warm friendship with Ulysses S. Grant, his strained relationship with his wife, Ellen, and his unassuageable grief over the death of his young son, Willy. The result is a remarkable, comprehensive life of an American icon whose legacy resonates to this day.

American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant


Ronald C. White Jr. - 2016
    Lincoln, a major new biography of one of America's greatest generals--and most misunderstood presidentsFinalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Military History Book Prize In his time, Ulysses S. Grant was routinely grouped with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in the "Trinity of Great American Leaders." But the battlefield commander-turned-commander-in-chief fell out of favor in the twentieth century. In American Ulysses, Ronald C. White argues that we need to once more revise our estimates of him in the twenty-first.Based on seven years of research with primary documents--some of them never examined by previous Grant scholars--this is destined to become the Grant biography of our time. White, a biographer exceptionally skilled at writing momentous history from the inside out, shows Grant to be a generous, curious, introspective man and leader--a willing delegator with a natural gift for managing the rampaging egos of his fellow officers. His wife, Julia Dent Grant, long marginalized in the historic record, emerges in her own right as a spirited and influential partner.Grant was not only a brilliant general but also a passionate defender of equal rights in post-Civil War America. After winning election to the White House in 1868, he used the power of the federal government to battle the Ku Klux Klan. He was the first president to state that the government's policy toward American Indians was immoral, and the first ex-president to embark on a world tour, and he cemented his reputation for courage by racing against death to complete his Personal Memoirs. Published by Mark Twain, it is widely considered to be the greatest autobiography by an American leader, but its place in Grant's life story has never been fully explored--until now.One of those rare books that successfully recast our impression of an iconic historical figure, American Ulysses gives us a finely honed, three-dimensional portrait of Grant the man--husband, father, leader, writer--that should set the standard by which all future biographies of him will be measured.Praise for American Ulysses"[Ronald C. White] portrays a deeply introspective man of ideals, a man of measured thought and careful action who found himself in the crosshairs of American history at its most crucial moment."--USA Today"White delineates Grant's virtues better than any author before. . . . By the end, readers will see how fortunate the nation was that Grant went into the world--to save the Union, to lead it and, on his deathbed, to write one of the finest memoirs in all of American letters."--The New York Times Book Review"Ronald White has restored Ulysses S. Grant to his proper place in history with a biography whose breadth and tone suit the man perfectly. Like Grant himself, this book will have staying power."--The Wall Street Journal"Magisterial . . . Grant's esteem in the eyes of historians has increased significantly in the last generation. . . . [American Ulysses] is the newest heavyweight champion in this movement."--The Boston Globe "Superb . . . illuminating, inspiring and deeply moving . . . The Grant we meet in American Ulysses is richly deserving of a fuller understanding and of celebration for the man he was and the legacy he left us."--Chicago Tribune"In this sympathetic, rigorously sourced biography, White . . . conveys the essence of Grant the man and Grant the warrior."--Newsday

Angelique's Storm


Paula W. Millet - 2016
    But she had battled the storms of life before, and she would not be intimidated, not by nature’s fury nor by a man, even one who once had her heart….... When the beautiful plantation-born socialite Angelique Latour is swept off her feet and quickly wedded to a swarthy scoundrel, her world is turned upside down. Although schooled to be a charming, proper Creole belle, her fine education does not prepare her for the cruel irony that leaves her penniless and alone. Haunted by loss and betrayal, she refuses to be a victim, tapping into her own resourcefulness to save herself in a world where men traditionally hold the power and position. And just as a unique opportunity for reinvention, redemption, and romance presents itself, forces of nature and the universe plot to spoil her happiness, driving her hopes with a hurricane’s fury into the wide expanse of the Gulf of Mexico. Angelique’s Storm weaves a powerful tale of suspense, treachery, and survival against the backdrop of pre-Civil War South Louisiana

Brings the Lightning


Peter Grant - 2016
     Walt Ames, a former cavalryman with the First Virginia, is headed West with little more than a rifle, a revolver, and a pocket full of looted Yankee gold. But in his way stand bushwhackers, bluecoats, con men, and the ever-restless Indians. And perhaps most dangerous of all, even more dangerous than the cruel and unforgiving land, is the temptation of the woman whose face he can't forget. When you can’t go home again – go West!

Iron Dawn: The Monitor, the Merrimack, and the Civil War Sea Battle that Changed History


Richard Snow - 2016
    The Confederacy, with no fleet of its own, built an iron fort containing ten heavy guns on the hull of a captured Union frigate named the Merrimack. The North got word of the project when it was already well along, and, in desperation, commissioned an eccentric inventor named John Ericsson to build the Monitor, an entirely revolutionary iron warship—at the time, the single most complicated machine ever made. Abraham Lincoln himself was closely involved with the ship’s design. Rushed through to completion in just 100 days, it mounted only two guns, but they were housed in a shot-proof revolving turret. The ship hurried south from Brooklyn (and nearly sank twice on the voyage), only to arrive to find the Merrimack had arrived blazing that morning, destroyed half the Union fleet, and would be back to finish the job the next day. When she returned, the Monitor was there. She fought the Merrimack to a standstill, and saved the Union cause. As soon as word of the battle spread, Great Britain—the foremost sea power of the day—ceased work on all wooden ships. A thousand-year-old tradition ended, and the path to the naval future opened. Richly illustrated with photos, maps, and engravings, Iron Dawn is the irresistible story of these incredible, intimidating war machines. Historian Richard Snow brings to vivid life the tensions of the time, explaining how wooden and ironclad ships worked, maneuvered, battled, and sank. This full account of the Merrimack and Monitor has never been told in such immediate, compelling detail.

Widow's Song (Civil War Mail Order Brides #3)


Terri Grace - 2016
    They suggest that she marry a local lumberjack named Milton, and although Abigail finds herself favoring the idea, her children are horrified by it and refuse to go.Over time, she is faced with a decision between staying in Charleston and doing what little she can to protect her children, or taking the path she believes God has prepared for her, and leaving her children in His hands.Can she, like Abraham, place her children on the altar, and will the love of a simple lumberjack ease the loneliness of life without her Jake?

Surrender the Wind


Elizabeth St. Michel - 2016
     From the award-winning, bestselling author of The Winds of Fate comes a novel about a love that crosses the boundaries of civil war. When Confederate General John Daniel Rourke is severely wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness, he’s captured and sent to a prison camp. On his way there, Union soldiers mistake him for dead and toss him from the train into the New York countryside, where he lands at the feet of Catherine Fitzgerald, a schoolmistress. Rourke wakes to find the mysterious and strong-spirited beauty nursing him back to health. He’s intrigued but unaware of her true identity as the heiress to the Union’s ammunitions manufacturer, and their fiery battle of wits and wills commences. Yet when outside forces begin to envelop them in a larger conspiracy, their own war begins. Torn between family loyalties and manipulated by a powerful leader from the Irish underworld, Catherine and Rourke will have to fight on both sides of the secession line to win the most significant battle of all: the fight for their love. Filled with detailed battle scenes and breathtaking twists, Surrender the Wind has won “the Marlene” and “the Catherine” Romance Writer’s Awards.

A Savage War: A Military History of the Civil War


Williamson Murray - 2016
    It combined the projection of military might across a continent on a scale never before seen with an unprecedented mass mobilization of peoples. Yet despite the revolutionizing aspects of the Civil War, its leaders faced the same uncertainties and vagaries of chance that have vexed combatants since the days of Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War. "A Savage War" sheds critical new light on this defining chapter in military history.In a masterful narrative that propels readers from the first shots fired at Fort Sumter to the surrender of Robert E. Lee's army at Appomattox, Williamson Murray and Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh bring every aspect of the battlefield vividly to life. They show how this new way of waging war was made possible by the powerful historical forces unleashed by the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution, yet how the war was far from being simply a story of the triumph of superior machines. Despite the Union's material superiority, a Union victory remained in doubt for most of the war. Murray and Hsieh paint indelible portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and other major figures whose leadership, judgment, and personal character played such decisive roles in the fate of a nation. They also examine how the Army of the Potomac, the Army of Northern Virginia, and the other major armies developed entirely different cultures that influenced the war's outcome.A military history of breathtaking sweep and scope, "A Savage War" reveals how the Civil War ushered in the age of modern warfare.

Ichabod Wolfe


Frank Fiordalisi - 2016
    It is the story of a13 year old orphan who grows up in the second half of the 19th century. It is a story of the old west and the prelude to the technology that the 20th century will bring.

U. S. Grant: The Civil War Years: Grant Moves South and Grant Takes Command


Bruce Catton - 2016
    Grant. In these two comprehensive and engaging volumes, preeminent Civil War historian Bruce Catton follows the wartime movements of Ulysses S. Grant, detailing the Union commander’s bold tactics and his relentless dedication to achieving the North’s victory in the nation’s bloodiest conflict.   While a succession of Union generals were losing battles and sacrificing troops due to ego, egregious errors, and incompetence in the early years of the war, an unassuming Federal army colonel was excelling in the Western theater of operations. Grant Moves South details how Grant, as commander of the Twenty-First Illinois Volunteer Infantry, though unskilled in military power politics and disregarded by his peers, was proving to be an unstoppable force. He won victory after victory at Belmont, Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson, while sagaciously avoiding near-catastrophe and ultimately triumphing at Shiloh. His decisive victory at Vicksburg would cost the Confederacy its invaluable lifeline: the Mississippi River.  Grant Takes Command picks up in the summer of 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to the head of the Army of the Potomac, placing nothing less than the future of an entire nation in the hands of the military leader. Grant’s acute strategic thinking and unshakeable tenacity led to the crushing defeat of the Confederacy in the Overland Campaign in Virginia and the Siege of Petersburg. In the spring of 1865, Grant finally forced Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, ending the brutal conflict. Although tragedy struck only days later when Lincoln was assassinated, Grant’s triumphs on the battlefield ensured that the president’s principles of unity and freedom would endure.   Based in large part on military communiqués, personal eyewitness accounts, and Grant’s own writings, this engrossing two-part biography offers readers an in-depth portrait of the extraordinary warrior and unparalleled strategist whose battlefield brilliance clinched the downfall of the Confederacy in the Civil War.

Lincoln's Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days that Changed a Presidency, March 24 - April 8, 1865


Noah Andre Trudeau - 2016
    “I am very unwell,” he confided to a close acquaintance. A vast and terrible civil war was winding down, leaving momentous questions for a war-weary president to address. A timely invitation from General U. S. Grant provided the impetus for an escape to City Point, Virginia, a journey from which Abraham Lincoln drew much more than he ever expected. Lincoln’s Greatest Journey: Sixteen Days that Changed a Presidency, March 24 – April 8, 1865, by Noah Andre Trudeau offers the first comprehensive account of a momentous time.Lincoln traveled to City Point, Virginia, in late March 1865 to escape the constant interruptions in the nation’s capital that were carrying off a portion of his “vitality,” and to make his personal amends for having presided over the most destructive war in American history in order to save the nation. Lincoln returned to Washington sixteen days later with a renewed sense of purpose, urgency, and direction that would fundamentally shape his second term agenda.Previous coverage of this unprecedented trip―his longest break from the White House since he had taken office―has been sketchy at best, and often based on seriously flawed sources. Lincoln’s Greatest Journey represents the most extensively researched and detailed story of these decisive sixteen days at City Point in a narrative laden with many heretofore unpublished accounts. The richly shaped prose, a hallmark of Trudeau’s pen, rewrites much of the heretofore misunderstood story of what really happened to Lincoln during this time.A fresh, more complete picture of Lincoln emerges. This is Lincoln at a time of great personal and national change―the story of how he made peace with the past and became firmly future-focused, all set against a dramatically new narrative of what really happened during those last weeks of his life. It infuses the well-worn Lincoln narrative with fresh sources to fundamentally change an often-told story in ways large and small. Rather than treat Lincoln as a dead man walking when he returns to Washington, Trudeau paints him as he surely was―a changed man profoundly influenced by all that he experienced while at City Point.Lincoln’s Greatest Journey represents an important addition to the Lincoln saga. The conventional wisdom that there’s nothing new to be learned about Lincoln is due for a major reset.

Bust Hell Wide Open: The Life of Nathan Bedford Forrest


Samuel W. Mitcham Jr. - 2016
    By thirty-nine he had established himself as a successful plantation owner worth over $1 million. And at forty years old, Nathan Bedford Forrest enlisted in a Tennessee cavalry regiment—and became a controversial Civil War legend. The legacy of General Nathan Bedford Forrest is deeply divisive. Best known for being accused of war crimes at the Battle of Fort Pillow and for his role as first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan—an organization he later denounced—Forrest has often been studied as a military figure, but never before studied as a fascinating individual who wrestled with the complex issues of his violent times. Bust Hell Wide Open is a comprehensive portrait of Nathan Bedford Forrest as a man: his achievements, failings, reflections, and regrets.

The Lonesome Gun


A.A. Glynn - 2016
     This mysterious newcomer is the spitting image of Luke Strang – a man Clemmins and his cronies drove to his death many years ago. Rod is in fact the son of the late Luke Strang, who has returned to Arizona to claim his inheritance. But he soon realises that big trouble is brewing here in the desert-edge ranges. Claybury and Gillman are crooks hiring gunmen from all over the country, and are preparing to incite a full out range-war. But Strang has seen too many innocents murdered to simply stand back and watch justice be undone. He decides he will do whatever he can to save the fate of the Star and Bar ranch. But up against wild and vicious gunhands, does Strang stand a chance? As a lone man with a lonesome gun, he’ll need more than just luck on his side... Set during the gun slinging days of the west, The Lonesome Gun is a rip-roaring western adventure that could stand alongside the likes of Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour. Praise for A A Glynn ‘A classic story of adventure and courage in the Old West.' - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of Trade Off. Anthony Arthur Glynn was born in Manchester in 1929, and had a disrupted wartime childhood, including enduring the Luftwaffe’s blitzing of the city in 1940 and 1941. Drawn to art and writing from an early age, be quickly became interested in all kinds of books and devoured popular fiction. He started work as a textile designer in Manchester at sixteen and studied the subject at Manchester Regional College of Art in the evenings. After two years’ National Service in the army, he became a reporter on a weekly newspaper in Cheshire during his early twenties. Since retiring, he frequently visits the US, researching authentic backgrounds for new Western novels. His other western adventures include, Sixgun Showdown, Guns Across Red River and The Lonesome Gun.

Border Fury


Alan David - 2016
    During the long years of the war he had often dreamed of returning, of settling down to a life that would never again know violence, bloodshed or the constant fear of death.But nothing could prepare him for what awaits on his return.As he rides into Texas, he finds his ranch stripped of cattle, his parents brutally murdered, and his sister under the protection of a stranger. The war had wrecked many of his dreams, but his violent homecoming had shattered his last remaining shard of hope.There is hell along the Mexican border, and no one is safe.Deserters from the army, bandits and riff-raff from the Union are causing a reign of terror, and lawmakers and civilians alike are powerless to stop them.It soon becomes clear that there is a bounty on Lomax’s head, and everyone is out for his blood. But in a lawless land, who can he trust? When it becomes clear that the corrupt law enforcement are behind the savage killings and robberies, Lomax must find out who is on his side.Only then can he find a way of avenging the deaths of his parents, and countless others who have perished under this reign of terror...Border Fury is a classic wild west adventure, set during the bloody aftermath of the brutal Civil War. Praise for Alan David ‘A classic of the genre’ - Tom Casey, bestselling author of Trade OffAlan David is a prolific writer of over 500 novels in a wide range of genres, from classic westerns, to historical thrillers. His other western novels include Fight or Die, Gun Hell, Gun Wages and Draw or Die. Pioneering Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK’s leading independent digital publisher. We publish new and classic westerns by authors from the US and the UK. Sign up to our newsletter: http://bit.ly/1qCIi74 Follow us on Twitter: @PioneeringPress Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/PioneeringPress

Crossing the Deadline: Stephen's Journey Through the Civil War


Michael Shoulders - 2016
    As the Civil War intensifies to the south, Stephen's brother enlists to fight for the Union and help support the family. The war drags on and Stephen, an accomplished bugler in the town band, is witness to the sad consequences of slavery. The opportunity to enlist as Colonel Eli Lilly's personal bugler arises and Stephen jumps at the chance. After surviving the Battle of Sulphur Trestle in Alabama, Stephen is sent to a Confederate prison camp to await the end of the war. The trials of prison camp are severe but at war's end Stephen is set to be sent home to Indiana aboard the steamboat Sultana. However, disaster strikes and the ship catches fire and capsizes in America's largest maritime disaster. Through luck and fortitude Stephen survives, but his Civil War journey is one that will engage readers of all ages. Based on historical facts and characters, Stephan's story truly captures the essence of the era.

A Bend in the Straight and Narrow: A Woman's Journey into the Heart of the Florida Frontier


Sarah A. Younger - 2016
    Based on a true story of Civil War era passion and sacrifice, this novel follows the life of Sally Ann Marsh. Born to a poor, but close-knit family, Sally is married off in 1859, at the age of 15, to a wealthy man twice her age. She is distraught, but determined to make the best of her life. She falls in love with her husband and they create a blissful home together with their growing family. Their lives are upended when Sherman marches through Georgia. Sally is forced to evacuate and leads a small group of women, children and her elderly father-in-law to the Florida frontier. As their men are off fighting, the refugees rebuild their lives amidst the sweltering heat, mosquitoes and gnats, alligators and poisonous snakes. But it is the two-legged varmints who threaten the most harm. Sally manages to establish a community for her friends and family, while they wait for the men, some of whom might never return.

Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America


Douglas R. Egerton - 2016
    At first, the South and most of the North responded with outrage—southerners promised to execute any black soldiers captured in battle, while many northerners claimed that blacks lacked the necessary courage. Meanwhile, Massachusetts, long the center of abolitionist fervor, launched one of the greatest experiments in American history.In Thunder at the Gates, Douglas Egerton chronicles the formation and battlefield triumphs of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry—regiments led by whites but composed of black men born free or into slavery. He argues that the most important battles of all were won on the field of public opinion, for in fighting with distinction the regiments realized the long-derided idea of full and equal citizenship for blacks.A stirring evocation of this transformative episode, Thunder at the Gates offers a riveting new perspective on the Civil War and its legacy.

Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray


Dorothy Love - 2016
    Lee, and heiress to Virginia’s storied Arlington house and General Washington’s personal belongings.Born in bondage at Arlington, Selina Norris Gray learns to read and write in the schoolroom Mary and her mother keep for the slave children and eventually becomes Mary’s housekeeper and confidante. As Mary’s health declines, Selina becomes her personal maid, strengthening a bond that lasts until death parts them.Forced to flee Arlington at the start of the Civil War, Mary entrusts the keys to her beloved home to no one but Selina. When Union troops begin looting the house, it is Selina who confronts their commander and saves many of its historic treasures.In a story spanning crude slave quarters, sunny schoolrooms, stately wedding parlors, and cramped birthing rooms, novelist Dorothy Love amplifies the astonishing true-life account of an extraordinary alliance and casts fresh light on the tumultuous years leading up to and through the wrenching battle for a nation’s soul.A classic American tale, Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Gray is the first novel to chronicle this beautiful fifty-year friendship forged at the crossroads of America’s journey from enslavement to emancipation.

Good Time Coming


C.S. Harris - 2016
    Francisville, Louisiana, has known little of the hardships, death, and destruction of the War. But with the fall of New Orleans, all changes. A Federal fleet appears on the Mississippi, and it isn't long before the depredations and attacks begin.For one Southern family the dark blue uniform of the Union army is not the only thing they fear. A young girl stops a vicious attack on her mother and the town must pull together to keep each other safe. But a cryptic message casts doubt amongst the townsfolk. Is there a traitor in the town and can anybody be trusted?Twelve-year-old Amrie and her family have never felt entirely accepted by their neighbors, due to their vocal abolitionist beliefs. But when Federal forces lay siege to the nearby strongholds of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the women and children of St. Francisville find themselves living in a no mans land between two warring armies. Realizing they must overcome their differences and work together to survive, they soon discover strengths and abilities they never knew they possessed, and forge unexpected friendships.As the violence in the area intensifies, Amrie comes to terms with her own capacity for violence and realizes that the capacity for evil exists within all of us. And when the discovery of a closely guarded secret brings the wrath of the Federal army down on St. Francisville, the women of St. Francisville, with whom Amrie and her mother have shared the war years many deprivations and traumas, now unite and risk their own lives to save them.

The Yankee Problem: An American Dilemma (The Wilson Files Book 1)


Clyde N. Wilson - 2016
    It began as soon as they dropped their anchor in Plymouth Bay. Since that time, they have meddled, cheated, and lied their way into every nook and cranny of American life. The Southern people warned others about the radical utopians of New England, and even went to war to get away from them, but to no avail. Now all Americans, not just Southerners, are subject to the whims of “those people” and their never ending mission to recreate, not only America, but the entire world in their bizarre, sanctimonious image. Dr. Clyde Wilson, in this first installment of The Wilson Files, takes the Yankee problem head-on. After decades of historical research and personal observation, he exposes and explains these pesky purveyors of mischief and mayhem! If you want to understand America, American History, and the upside-down dystopian nightmare in which we all live, you have to understand the problem. We do not have an economic problem, a race problem, a class problem, a gender problem, a toilet access problem, a drug problem, a gun problem, or any other ideological or social problem at the root of America’s dysfunctional anti-culture – we have a Yankee problem! This title is enrolled in Kindle MatchBook. FREE if print edition is purchased on Amazon.

Lincoln's Generals' Wives: Four Women Who Influenced the Civil War--For Better and for Worse


Candice Shy Hooper - 2016
    They were their husbands' closest confidantes and had a profound impact on the generals' ambitions and actions. Most important, the women's own attitudes toward and relation- ships with Lincoln had major historical significance.Candice Shy Hooper's lively account covers the early lives of her subjects, as well as their families, their education, their political attitudes, and their personal beliefs. Once shots were fired on Fort Sumter, the women were launched out of their private spheres into a wholly different universe, where their relationships with their husbands and their personal opinions of the president of the United States had national and historical consequences.The approaches and styles of Fremont and McClellan contrast with those of Sherman and Grant, and there is equal symmetry in their wives' stories. Jessie Fremont and Nelly McClellan both encouraged their husbands to persist in their arrogance and delusion and to reject the advice and friendship of their commander in chief. In the end, Jessie and Nelly contributed most to the Union war effort by accelerating their husbands' removal from active command. Conversely, while Ellen Sherman's and Julia Grant's belief in their husbands' character and potential was ardent, it was not unbounded. Ellen and Julia did not hesitate to take issue with their spouses when they believed their actions were wrong or their judgments ill-advised. They intelligently supported their husbands' best instincts--including trust in and admiration for Lincoln--and re-buffed their worst. They were the source of strength that Sherman and Grant used to win the Civil War.Relying on a close reading of letters, memoirs, and other primary sources--and, for the first time, mapping the women's wartime travels--Hooper explores the very different ways in which these remarkable women responded to the unique challenges of being Lincoln's generals' wives.

The Quartermaster: Montgomery C. Meigs, Lincoln's General, Master Builder of the Union Army


Robert O'Harrow - 2016
    Meigs, who built the Union Army, was judged by Lincoln, Seward, and Stanton to be the indispensable architect of the Union victory. Civil War historian James McPherson calls Meigs “the unsung hero of northern victory.”Born to a well to do, connected family in 1816, Montgomery C. Meigs graduated from West Point as an engineer. He helped build America’s forts and served under Lt. Robert E. Lee to make navigation improvements on the Mississippi River. As a young man, he designed the Washington aqueducts in a city where people were dying from contaminated water. He built the spectacular wings and the massive dome of the brand new US Capitol. Introduced to President Lincoln by Secretary of State William Seward, Meigs became Lincoln’s Quartermaster. It was during the Civil War that Meigs became a national hero. He commanded Ulysses S. Grant’s base of supplies that made Union victories, including Gettysburg, possible. He sustained Sherman’s army in Georgia, and the March to the Sea. After the war, Meigs built Arlington Cemetery (on land that had been Robert E. Lee’s home). Robert O’Harrow Jr. brings Meigs alive in the commanding and intensely personal Quartermaster. We get to know this major military figure that Lincoln and his Cabinet and Generals called the key to victory and learn how he fed, clothed, and armed the Union Army using his ingenuity and devotion. O’Harrow tells the full dramatic story of this fierce, strong, honest, loyal, forward-thinking, major American figure.

A Splinter in time


Linda Shelby - 2016
    Instead, she snags her hand on a bedpost splintered by a musket ball and finds herself at the plantation at the exact moment the shot is fired.Confederate officer Matthew Orrick is staying in the vacant overseer's cabin while recovering from a battle wound. Audrey is captivated by him, but falling in love is not an option. Altering Matt's destiny would impact the fate of generations yet to be born.After Matt discovers Audrey's true identity, he demands she abandon her attempts to return to her own time. But Audrey's feelings for him conflict with her concern for the lives that will be erased if she stays.When an eleventh hour opportunity arises, Audrey has only seconds to weigh her decision – stay with the man she loves, or return to set her own world right?

The Chickamauga Campaign—Barren Victory: The Retreat into Chattanooga, the Confederate Pursuit, and the Aftermath of the Battle, September 21 to October 20, 1863


David A. Powell - 2016
    Glory or the Grave, the trilogy’s second volume, focused on September 20—the decisive third day of fighting that included the Confederate breakthrough of the late morning and the desperate Union final stand on Horseshoe Ridge. This installment drew to a close at nightfall.Barren Victory, David Powell’s final installment, examines the immediate aftermath of this great battle with unprecedented clarity and detail. The narrative opens at dawn on Monday, September 21, 1863, with Union commander William S. Rosecrans in Chattanooga and most of the rest of his Federal army in Rossville, Georgia. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg has won the signal victory of his career, but has yet to fully grasp that fact or the fruits of his success. Unfortunately for the South, three grueling days of combat has broken down the Army of Tennessee and made a vigorous pursuit nearly impossible. In addition to carefully examining the decisions made by each army commander and their consequences, Powell sets forth the dreadful costs of the fighting in terms of the human suffering involved. Barren Victory concludes with the most detailed order of battle (including unit strengths and losses) for Chickamauga ever compiled, and a comprehensive bibliography.David Powell’s The Chickamauga Campaign Trilogy is now complete, with the fighting in the hills and valleys of North Georgia finally receiving the extensive treatment it has so long deserved.

Quick on the Draw


Gordon Landsborough - 2016
     Imprisoned for a crime he never committed, deserted by the woman he loved and betrayed by his own family. His bad luck seems to be running out when he is released early from prison and finds a job on the railroads. But it doesn’t last long. First he gets into a fight with a man who turns up dead. Then, while still on the run, his train is held up by his own brother’s gang. Then he somehow manages to offend the railroad boss’ daughter, the beautiful Elizabeth. With the fates out to get him, Glen has to use all his wits and strength to take control of his own destiny. Will that be enough to see him through, or will his past catch up with him before he gets a chance? Quick on the Draw is a hard fighting story of the Old West, where lives were cheap and danger was great. Praise for Gordon Landsborough 'A punchy tale coupled with plenty of action - an engaging read!' - Philip McCormac, bestselling western author Gordon Landsborough (1913-1984) was a publisher, author and bookseller. Writing tales about the exploits of gun-toting cowboys fighting out on the arid sands of the Wild West, Landsborough was himself a pioneering in the English paperback publishing world of the 1950s. He was widely known amongst his peers as the ‘maverick publishing genius’. Pioneering Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK’s leading independent digital publisher. We publish new and classic westerns by authors from the US and the UK. Follow us on Twitter: @PioneeringPress Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/PioneeringPress

Don’t Give an Inch: The Second Day at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863 (Emerging Civil War Series)


Chris Mackowski - 2016
    Meade had hardly wrapped his head around the situation before everything exploded.Outside the small college town of Gettysburg, Confederates had inexplicably turned on the lead elements of Meade’s army and attacked. The first day of battle had ended poorly for Federals, but by nightfall, they had found a lodgment on high ground south of town. There, they fortified—and waited. “Don’t give an inch, boys!” one Federal commander told his men.The next day, July 2, 1863, would be one of the Civil War’s bloodiest. Confederate commander Robert E. Lee would launch his army at the Federal position in a series of assaults that would test the mettle of men on both sides in a way few had ever before been tested—and the Pennsylvania landscape would run red as a result.With names that have become legendary—Little Round Top, Devil’s Den, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Culp’s Hill—the second day at Gettysburg encompasses some of the best-known engagements of the Civil War. Yet those same stories have also become shrouded in mythology and misunderstanding.In Don’t Give an Inch: The Second Day at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, Emerging Civil War historians Chris Mackowski and Daniel T. Davis peel back the layers to share both the real and often-overlooked stories of that fateful summer day. In the same engaging style that has invited thousands of readers into the Civil War’s most important stories, Mackowski and Davis share their intimate knowledge of the battlefield they both grew up on.

Grant Invades Tennessee: The 1862 Battles for Forts Henry and Donelson


Timothy B. Smith - 2016
    Grant targeted Forts Henry and Donelson, he penetrated the Confederacy at one of its most vulnerable points, setting in motion events that would elevate his own status, demoralize the Confederate leadership and citizenry, and, significantly, tear the western Confederacy asunder. More to the point, the two battles of early 1862 opened the Tennessee River campaign that would prove critical to the ultimate Union victory in the Mississippi Valley. In Grant Invades Tennessee, award-winning Civil War historian Timothy B. Smith gives readers a battlefield view of the fight for Forts Henry and Donelson, as well as a critical wide-angle perspective on their broader meaning in the conduct and outcome of the war. The first comprehensive tactical treatment of these decisive battles, this book completes the trilogy of the Tennessee River campaign that Smith began in Shiloh and Corinth 1862, marking a milestone in Civil War history.Whether detailing command-level decisions or using eye-witness anecdotes to describe events on the ground, walking readers through maps or pulling back for an assessment of strategy, this finely written work is equally sure on matters of combat and context. Beginning with Grant’s decision to bypass the Confederates’ better-defended sites on the Mississippi, Smith takes readers step-by-step through the battles: the employment of a flotilla of riverine war ships along with infantry and land-based artillery in subduing Fort Henry; the lesser effectiveness of this strategy against Donelson’s much stronger defense, weaponry, and fighting forces; the surprise counteroffensive by the Confederates and the role of their commanders’ incompetence and cowardice in foiling its success. Though casualties at the two forts fell far short of bloodier Civil War battles to come, the importance of these Union victories transcend battlefield statistics. Grant Invades Tennessee allows us, for the first time, to clearly see how and why.

Cotillion Ball Saga: The Complete Series


Becky Lower - 2016
    Settle in to enjoy these ten tales of independent American heroines who meet their rebellious matches! The Reluctant Debutante : Ginger Fitzpatrick would rather be rallying for women’s rights than attending the Cotillion Ball—until she sets her eye on Joseph Lafontaine, a half Ojibwa Indian, whom New York society deems her unsuitable to marry. But love knows no such boundaries… The Abolitionist’s Secret : Heather Fitzpatrick falls for young army lieutenant David Whitman, who is tracking the runaway slave she rescued a few nights earlier. Can their attraction survive the coming divide between North and South? Banking on Temperance : Banking heir Basil Fitzpatrick has his pick of the ladies—but it’s impoverished spitfire Temperance Jones, daughter of a circuit-riding preacher, who catches his eye. She’s determined to get to Oregon—does he have the courage to follow? The Tempestuous Debutante : The smart choice says Jasmine Fitzpatrick should choose to charm the Viscount of Foxborough at this season’s Cotillion, but the noble’s stable boy, Parr O’Shaughnessy, may hold the key to her heart. Blinded by Grace : Grace Wagner has loved Halwyn Fitzpatrick since they were teens. When she needs a husband to inherit a trust, will Halwyn’s new glasses help him see her in a new light, or will she take control and propose? The Duplicitous Debutante : Rosemary Fitzpatrick hides her female identity as dime novelist F.P. Elliott, from new publisher Henry Cooper. When her deception begins to unravel at the Cotillion Ball, will deceit cost her the man she’s come to love? Expressly Yours, Samantha : To escape her wicked uncle, Samantha Hughes cuts her hair and joins the Pony Express as a man. Valerian Fitzpatrick’s fleeing life in the family business, but he and Sam fall in love once her secret’s uncovered. But does a future with her mean giving up the freedom he’s always craved? A Widow’s Salvation : Volunteering at the army hospital, widow Pepper Fitzpatrick Brown meets head surgeon Colonel Elijah Williams. It’s hard to find happiness in a war-torn United States, but these two wounded souls stand a fighting chance—if they can save what’s left of their hearts. The Forgotten Debutante : Saffron Fitzpatrick spent her teenage years mourning the dead rather than dancing at her debutante ball, with the exception of one forbidden kiss with soldier Ezekiel Boone. Fate reunites the couple three years later, and they discover unexpected common ground. An Unconventional Courtship : Discover where it all began with this bonus novella featuring the Fitzpatrick parents! When a busybody from back home confronts Charlotte Ashcroft, who’s attending a women’s rights speech in New York City alone, she grabs the man in a jaunty blue hat nearby and introduces him as her escort. What’s an up-and-coming young banker like George Fitzpatrick to do but help a lady out?

The Second Battle of Winchester: The Confederate Victory That Opened the Door to Gettysburg


Eric J. Wittenberg - 2016
    The Gettysburg Campaign is underway. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia is pushing northward through the Shenandoah Valley toward Pennsylvania, and only one significant force stands in its way: Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy's Union division of the Eighth Army Corps, in the vicinity of Winchester and Berryville, Virginia. What happened next is the subject of the provocative new book The Second Battle of Winchester: The Confederate Victory That Opened the Door to Gettysburg, June 13-15, 1863.Despite being heavily outnumbered, General Milroy defied repeated instructions to withdraw his command even as the overpowering Second Corps under Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell approached within striking distance. The veteran Indiana politician-turned-soldier was convinced the enemy consisted of nothing more than cavalry or was simply a feint. Milroy's controversial decision to stand and fight pitted his outnumbered and largely inexperienced men against some of Lee's finest veterans. The complex and fascinating maneuvering and fighting that followed on June 13-15 cost Milroy hundreds of killed and wounded and some 4,000 captured (about one-half of his command), with the remainder of his command routed from the battlefield. The combat cleared the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley of Federal troops, demonstrated Lee could obtain supplies on the march, justified the elevation of General Ewell to replace the recently deceased Stonewall Jackson--and sent shockwaves through the Northern states.Today, the Second Battle of Winchester is largely forgotten. But in June 1863, the politically charged front-page news caught President Lincoln and the War Department by surprise and forever tarnished Milroy's career. The beleaguered Federal soldiers who fought there spent a lifetime seeking redemption, arguing their three-day "forlorn hope" delayed the Rebels long enough to allow the Army of the Potomac to arrive and defeat Lee at Gettysburg. For the Confederates, the decisive leadership on display outside Winchester proved an illusion that masked significant command issues buried within the upper echelons of Stonewall Jackson's former corps that would only make themselves known in the earliest days of July on a different battlefield.Award-winning authors Eric J. Wittenberg and Scott L. Mingus Sr. combined their researching and writing talents to produce the most in-depth and comprehensive study of Second Winchester ever written. Their balanced effort, based upon scores of archival and previously unpublished diaries, newspaper accounts, letter collections, other firsthand sources, and a deep familiarity with the terrain in and around Winchester and the lower Shenandoah Valley, explores the battle from every perspective.The Second Battle of Winchester is comprehensive, highly readable, deeply researched, and immensely interesting. Now, finally, the pivotal battle in the Shenandoah Valley that opened the door to Gettysburg has the book it has long deserved.

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


Carol Reardon - 2016
    Additionally, in its aftermath, President Abraham Lincoln issued his famous Emancipation Proclamation. In this engaging, easy-to-use guide, Carol Reardon and Tom Vossler allow visitors to understand this crucial Civil War battle in fine detail. Abundantly illustrated with maps and historical and modern photographs, A Field Guide to Antietam explores twenty-one sites on and near the battlefield where significant action occurred. Combining crisp narrative and rich historical context, each stop in the book is structured around the following questions: *What happened here?*Who fought here?*Who commanded here?*Who fell here?*Who lived here?*How did participants remember the events?With accessible presentation and fresh interpretations of primary and secondary evidence, this is an absolutely essential guide to Antietam and its lasting legacy.

Tales from the Underground Railroad


Julie McDonald - 2016
    The total read time is 30-45 minutes. You will learn about the touching love story of Louis and Ellen, the miraculous escape and inspiring story of Mary, the hilarious story of "Deacon Jones," plus three more. This book is suitable for all ages, but especially useful for grade school children.

Trail Angel


Derek Catron - 2016
    In the spring of 1866, Annabelle sets out with her extended family to the goldfields of Montana. Guiding the wagon train is Josey Angel, a cavalryman said to have killed more men than any soldier in the Union army. His reputation frightened Annabelle. His almost boyish appearance and manner intrigued her. The journey through landscapes so beautiful and vast that anything seems possible will test and strengthen Annabelle, a Southern widow who lost everything in the war. Josey discovers new purpose in seeing to the safety of the settlers. Haunted by memories of the war and what he did to survive it, he sees in Annabelle a reason to think beyond living one day to the next, if he can only find redemption for his sins. As they begin to turn to each other, Annabelle and Josey discover even greater perils. A mysterious gang of bandits stalks their trail, and the Sioux will do anything to drive away the interlopers. Josey, Annabelle and all of those they care for are unwittingly headed into the path of a new and savage war. With richly drawn characters and an action-packed plot, Trail Angel takes readers on a fast-paced ride from a new and distinctive voice in the genre "

Troubled Refuge: Struggling for Freedom in the Civil War


Chandra Manning - 2016
    By the end of the Civil War, nearly half a million slaves had taken refuge behind Union lines, in what became known as "contraband camps." These were crowded, dangerous places, yet some 12-15 percent of the Confederacy's slave population took almost unimaginable risks to reach them, and they became the first places Northerners came to know former slaves en masse. Ranging from stories of individuals to those of armies on the move to the debates in Congress, Troubled Refuge probes what the camps were really like and how former slaves and Union soldiers warily united there. This alliance, which would outlast the war, helped to destroy slavery and ward off the surprisingly tenacious danger of re-enslavement. But it also raised unsettling questions about the relationship between American civil and military authority, and reshaped the meaning of American citizenship, to the benefit as well as the lasting cost of African-Americans.

The Gun-slammer


Mason Macrae - 2016
     Since the death of Abe Coffin, the prized beef from the Coffin A ranch has been stolen by the surrounding ranchers. No one is innocent. When a new heir to Coffin A is announced as coming to town, the criminal ranchers put him down as a marked man. A bullet is waiting for him as soon as he steps off the train. Cole Abbott, the new heir to the ranch, wisely arrives in disguise when his new foreman is suspiciously too particular over what he should be wearing when he arrives. Posing as Jim Cole, the new manager for Coffin A, Cole Abbott sets about getting his beef back. But when one of those thieving ranchers is the formidable widow Cyn Toll, reclaiming what's rightfully his can mean only one thing – a ranch war. Who can Cole Abbott trust to fight on his side? Are there enemies in his own ranch? And who will get caught in the crossfire when The Gunslammer is on the rampage? Praise for Mason Macrae 'A classic of the genre.' - Tom Kasey, bestselling author of Trade Off. Mason Macrae is a prolific author of Western literature, creating some of the most thrilling novels on the Wild West from the past century. Other titles from Mason Macrae include The Bounty Hunter and Two Gun Troubador.

Apalachicola Pearl


Michael A. Kinnett - 2016
    It was here in the backwater, during The Civil War, where women, children, and old struggled to survive. The real threat looming over them did not come from Union blockaders in the Gulf waters or from Confederates with river fortifications to the North. The dark shadow over the town came from a gathering of ruffians calling themselves the Rebel Guard. These so called patriots, without conscience, pillaged and murdered on the backs of a devastated people. It would be two men, Michael Kohler and Stillman Smith, brothers forged in the fires of war, who rose up to stop the Rebel Guard. What chance did they have against an overwhelming force? Someone was going to die.Meet LaRela Retsyo Agnusdei, a precocious seven year old known as Pearl. Learn of her remarkable life and courageous efforts to alter a world torn apart. Enjoy reading as Pearl moves the players around the board.The event was called "The Marr, Smith Affair," a documented event that shook the governments of both the Confederacy and the Union. It remains a mystery today. What happened? Perhaps the recently discovered journal of Michael Brandon Kohler offers an answer.

The Gettysburg Paradox: A Short Story


Joe Vasicek - 2016
     It was madness, sheer madness. Soldiers from the future fighting a battle in the past. And did Gettysburg even belong to the 19th century anymore? Had it ever? Never before and perhaps never since would so much of the future hang on so brief a moment in history. This story is rated T according to the AO3 content rating system.

No Mercy


Philip McCormac - 2016
     The Federal forces put a price on his head, but Wolfe didn't go into hiding. When the war ends, however, the soldier tries to settle into the quiet life of a rancher. Wolfe aims to become a family, rather than fighting, man. But the bitterness of past conflicts will not die. A vengeful woman, Tamara, succeeds in having him thrown into prison for the killing of her sons - and with Wolfe safely caged she sets out to destroy his family. Wolfe bides his time and makes a dramatic escape from captivity. Gravely wounded during his escape, the soldier makes plans for his own particular brand of vengeance. The Grey Wolf smells blood and will have no mercy on the people who tried to destroy him. No Mercy is a classic adventure of the old West. Praise for Philip McCormac ‘Philip McCormac writes in the best tradition of Zane Grey and Jack Shaefer.’ Richard Foreman, author of Sword of Empire. Philip McCormac lives in the East Midlands, England, is married with two grown-up children and five grandchildren. He is the author of fourteen Western novels including All Gun’s Blazing and Son of A Gun. He is also the author of detective thriller Tone Death. Pioneering Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK’s leading independent digital publisher. We publish new and classic westerns by authors from the US and the UK.

Imperfect Union: A Father's Search for His Son in the Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg


Chuck Raasch - 2016
    

Liberty and Union: The Civil War Era and American Constitutionalism


Timothy S. Huebner - 2016
    Huebner states at the outset of this ambitious and elegant overview of the Civil War era. The book integrates political, military, and social developments into an epic narrative interwoven with the thread of constitutionalism--to show how all Americans engaged the nation's heritage of liberty and constitutional government.Whether political leaders or plain folk, northerners or southerners, Republicans or Democrats, black or white, most free Americans in the mid-nineteenth century believed in the foundational values articulated in the Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the Constitution of 1787--and this belief consistently animated the nation's political debates. Liberty and Union shows, however, that different interpretations of these founding documents ultimately drove a deep wedge between North and South, leading to the conflict that tested all constitutional faiths. Huebner argues that the resolution of the Civil War was profoundly revolutionary and also inextricably tied to the issues of both slavery and sovereignty, the two great unanswered questions of the Founding era.Drawing on a vast body of scholarship as well as such sources as congressional statutes, political speeches, military records, state supreme court decisions, the proceedings of black conventions, and contemporary newspapers and pamphlets, Liberty and Union takes the long view of the Civil War era. It merges Civil War history, US constitutional history, and African American history and stretches from the antebellum era through the period of reconstruction, devoting equal attention to the Union and Confederate sides of the conflict. And its in-depth exploration of African American participation in a broader culture of constitutionalism redefines our understanding of black activism in the nineteenth century. Altogether, this is a masterly, far-reaching work that reveals as never before the importance and meaning of the Constitution, and the law, for nineteenth-century Americans.

The Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: from June 15 to July 15, 1863


Sarah Broadhead - 2016
    She was the author of The Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from June 15 to July 15, 1863, which is a short primary historical source for what happened during the battle and especially how it impacted the residents of the borough. It has been called the most comprehensive written document on the role of women in the Civil War.

Draw or Die


Alan David - 2016
     The infamous Reed family start a deadly shoot-out, which then sparks a bitter feud between the Reed and McSween families. Dane is lucky to survive the shootings, with Bry Dexter – a two-gun artist and friend of the McSween family – intervening and saving him from certain death. Dane isn’t looking for trouble and is eager to be on his way. But when he learns that his friend, Frank, has been killed, he has no choice but to stay and avenge his honour. How many lives will be taken in the fight between the McSweens and the Reeds? Will Dane become just another casualty in this cold-blooded family feud? Only one thing is certain in Hay Creek Valley – Draw or Die! Praise for Alan David 'A classic of the genre.' - Tom Kasey, bestselling author of Trade Off. Alan David is a prolific writer of over 500 novels in a wide range of genres, from classic westerns, to historical thrillers. His other western novels include Fight or Die, Gun Hell and Gun Wages.

Levi Coffin: President of the Underground Railroad


Julie McDonald - 2016
    Over the course of his life he and his wife, Katie sheltered and cared for 3,000 slaves in their home before they moved them along to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Levi was so involved and committed to this cause he was known as the President of the Underground Railroad, and his home was referred to as Grand Central Station.

The Complete Civil War Road Trip Guide: More than 500 Sites from Gettysburg to Vicksburg


Michael Weeks - 2016
    Every entry includes an in-depth overview of the history of the battle and its importance to the war, the must-see places at each site, as well as lodging and other travel information. Outlining ten suggested itineraries for short road trips that cover every major battle of the war, The Complete Civil War Road Trip Guide enables historical travelers of any level to experience the Civil War as no other book has done.

National Geographic The Civil War: A Traveler's Guide


National Geographic Society - 2016
    Packed with color photographs, more than 600 historic battlefield and additional Civil War related sites, walking tours, 50 detailed maps, and the collective expertise of Civil War historians and dozens of park service experts, this handy, practical guide offers comprehensive information on the more than 384 sites recognized by the National Park Service as official battlefield locations, including the main Battlefield Sites, from Manassas to Appomattox Court House. In addition, this guide steers travelers to scores of additional little-seen and off-the-beaten path sites near the main battlefields. This guide helps travelers experience the Civil War chronologically, by location, or by campaign, experiencing the battles and skirmishes as the soldiers themselves would have encountered them: Follow Lee's march to Gettysburg or drive the Secession Trail through South Carolina. Walking tours provide visitors with detailed instructions, short histories, and a map so they can get out of the car and explore on foot. A history of individual parks is included, as well as books for further reading about specific figures or battles. A list of all of the Civil War battles in chronological order and a timeline of major events of the war puts the entire war in historical perspective. A complete list of all of the major campaigns as well as short biographies of key leaders and influential figures sheds light on the strategic maneuvers of the war. This travel guide is the perfect companion for any Civil War history exploration.

El Diablo


John Glasby - 2016
     But Jim has been killed, hanged for a crime he would never have committed. Slim Keene may have ridden into town but it’s his alter ego, El Diablo, that goes out for revenge. But revenge on who? There’s more than just one man to blame, but it seems like Bart Hagerman is the man who set Jim’s death in motion. But Hagerman is a powerful figure in Canders Bend and if Slim wants his revenge, he’ll need all the help he can get. The only question is, will anyone side with a man who calls himself the Devil? The streets of Canders Bend echo with the sound of gunshots in this epic tale about friendship, honour and revenge. Praise for John Glasby ‘A thrilling read’ - Robert Foster, acclaimed author of The Lunar Code John Glasby was born in 1928, and gradu¬ated from University with an honours degree in Chemistry. He started his career as a research chemist for I.C.I, in 1952, and worked for them until his retirement. During the early 1960s, Glasby wrote dozens of paperback westerns, all of which were reprinted in hardcover and paperback four decades later. Following his retirement from I.C.I., Glasby produced a steady stream of new westerns, science fiction and crime novels, right up to his death in 2010. His westerns include Justice at Red River, Flashpoint, Brand of the Hunted and Triple Peaks. Pioneering Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK’s leading independent digital publisher. We publish new and classic westerns by authors from the US and the UK. Sign up to our newsletter: http://bit.ly/1qCIi74 Follow us on Twitter: @PioneeringPress Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/PioneeringPress

The Gilded Cage


Judy Alter - 2016
    A story of love, major historical events, class warfare, intrigue, a forbidden love interest, and murder. A history of Chicago’s colorful Gilded Age.

I Heard the Bells


Angela K. Couch - 2016
    Now, with battle fresh in his mind, and the war still raging, he chances a quick trip home with one prayer…to make peace this Christmas.

Protectors of the Ohio Valley: The Fifth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry: A Short History of the Fifth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry and the Town They Called Home


Matthew A. Perry - 2016
    The goal was to make a free labor society in the slave holding south. Once the Civil War began, the town was the target of Confederate forces in the area. The Fifth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry was formed to protect Ceredo and other loyal towns in the Ohio Valley. This book details the trials and tribulations of the 5th West Virginia infantry and the statehood movement in the area.

And the Stars Wept


Chloe Helton - 2016
    Unable to stop him, she follows him into the horrors of the Civil War. At the camp, Cassie meets Beth, a fellow nurse with a secret threatening to tear her apart. With nobody left to live for, Cassandra and Beth soon face a tragic choice: become victims of the nation's bloodiest war, or face it head-on.

The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War on the Middle Border and the Making of American Regionalism


Christopher Phillips - 2016
    However, residents of these western border states, Abraham Lincoln's home region, had far more ambiguous identities - and political loyalties - than we commonly assume. In The Rivers Ran Backward, historian Christopher Phillips sheds light on the fluid regional identities of the "Middle Border" states during the Civil War era. Far from forming a fixed and static boundary between the North and South, the border states experienced fierce internal conflicts over their political and social loyalties. White supremacy and widespread support for the existence of slavery pervaded the "free" states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, which had much closer economic and cultural ties to the South, while those in Kentucky and Missouri held little identification with the South except over slavery. Debates raged at every level, from the individual to the state, in parlors, churches, schools, and public meeting places, among families, neighbors, and friends. Ultimately, the violence of the Civil War and cultural politics in its aftermath proved to be the strongest determining factor in shaping the states' regional identities, leaving an indelible imprint on the way in which Americans thought both of themselves and others. The Rivers Ran Backward reveals the complex history of the western border states as they struggled with questions of nationalism, racial politics, secession, neutrality, loyalty, and place - even as the Civil War threatened to tear the nation apart. In this work, Phillips shows that the Civil War was more than a conflict pitting the North against the South, but one within the West that reshaped American regionalism.

Secret of the Cannon


Gordon Landsborough - 2016
     His latest assignment is to trace the location of the mysterious Santa Anna cannon, with a history dating back to the Napoleonic wars. But the cannon is believed to have fallen into the hands of the Comanches. They already have a war on their hands – there isn’t a white settlement in eighty miles that hasn’t been burnt to the ground by the Indians. For the Comanches to seize control of the cannon would be disastrous, marking a sure defeat for the American settlers. Major Abigay assures O’Connor that the cannon has been busted and no longer functions, so there is no risk of it being put to use in warfare. However, O’Connor is suspicious. And he is not the only one hot on the trail of the cannon. As he crosses over Rattlesnake River in pursuit of the weapon – deep into Indian territory – there is no knowing how many Indians will be waiting to ambush him and thwart his plans. But it is not only bloodthirsty Indians he has to contend with. With renegade white settlers lurking at every turn, can O’Connor survive against all odds? Or will he ride straight into a death trap in his quest to find the legendary Secret of the Cannon? Praise for Gordon Landsborough 'A punchy tale coupled with plenty of action - an engaging read!' - Philip McCormac, bestselling western author Gordon Landsborough (1913-1984) was a publisher, author and bookseller. Writing tales about the exploits of gun-toting cowboys fighting out on the arid sands of the Wild West, Landsborough was himself a pioneering in the English paperback publishing world of the 1950s. He was widely known amongst his peers as the ‘maverick publishing genius’.

The Yankee Plague: Escaped Union Prisoners and the Collapse of the Confederacy


Lorien Foote - 2016
    Their flight created, in the words of contemporary observers, a Yankee plague, heralding a grim end to the Confederate cause. In this fascinating look at Union soldiers' flight for freedom in the last months of the Civil War, Lorien Foote reveals new connections between the collapse of the Confederate prison system, the large-scale escape of Union soldiers, and the full unraveling of the Confederate States of America. By this point in the war, the Confederacy was reeling from prison overpopulation, a crumbling military, violence from internal enemies, and slavery's breakdown. The fugitive Federals moving across the countryside in mass numbers, Foote argues, accelerated the collapse as slaves and deserters decided the presence of these men presented an opportune moment for escalated resistance. Blending rich analysis with an engaging narrative, Foote uses these ragged Union escapees as a lens with which to assess the dying Confederate States, providing a new window into the South's ultimate defeat.

When the Yankees Come: Former South Carolina Slaves Remember Sherman's Invasion


Paul C. Graham - 2016
    Nothing could be further from the truth. How do we know this? Because we have their recorded accounts. Ending slavery, contrary to self-congratulatory American myth, was not a righteous crusade. It was a by-product of a brutal war of conquest and invasion—a total war against civilians in which black Southerners suffered as much if not more than whites. The devastation of the people’s resources in large areas of the South left African Americans as well as Southern whites suffering and sometimes starving. For many, it was an experience of fear, disruption of life, and cruel uncertainty about their future, to which the liberators had given no thought. The material gathered by Paul C. Graham makes this clear. Of late, Americans have had a taste for history by theory: The War Between the States was “about” slavery. A better understanding comes from seeing what the people who were there have to say about it. Such an approach to history as human experience can be both informative and enlightening This book is the first in a series of first-hand accounts of the invasion of the South. Note: This title is enrolled in Kindle MatchBook. FREE if print version purchased on Amazon.

Decision at Tom's Brook: George Custer, Tom Rosser, and the Joy of the Fight


William Miller - 2016
    

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives: The American Story


Richard Stickann - 2016
    There are many biographies and accounts of individuals who fought in the Civil War, who went west to mine for silver, who piloted boats on the Erie Canal, who migrated west to become photographers, artists, historians, businessmen and adventurers. However, within these pages is the story of three men who, collectively, were all of these: William Sayre Gramesly, Charles Gramesly and Henry Gramesly, father and sons. The story begins in Palmyra, New York on the Erie Canal and takes the reader west to Illinois with exciting side trips through the Confederacy and the silver mines of Leadville, Colorado. It is an intriguing portrait of their endowment, our inheritance – the accounts of these ordinary men told through the journals and letters they left behind. It is a story of the intimate details of their lives and how those lives impacted the places where they lived, where they journeyed and where they died. They didn’t yearn for a better life like many others, so much as they yearned for a different life. Nothing seemed to suit them for very long and they were the first to eagerly jump at the chance for something new and exciting that infused their soul with energy and satisfaction. Their story is truly The American Story.

Lincoln's White House: The People's House in Wartime


James B. Conroy - 2016
    James Conroy brings to life the people who knew it, from servants to cabinet secretaries. We see the constant stream of visitors, from ordinary citizens to visiting dignitaries and diplomats. Conroy enables the reader to see how the Lincolns lived and how the administration conducted day-to-day business during four of the most tumultuous years in American history. Relying on fresh research and a character-driven narrative and drawing on untapped primary sources, he takes the reader on a behind-the-scenes tour that provides new insight into how Lincoln lived, led the government, conducted war, and ultimately, unified the country to build a better government of, by, and for the people.

Under Lincoln's Hat: The Story of the Man and His Presidency Told Through 100 Objects


Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation - 2016
    From a page taken from his sum book, to the gloves Lincoln wore the night he was assassinated, these objects reveal a sense of the man and his times in a fresh and immediate way. Handsomely designed, with more than 125 photographs visually complimenting the text, Under Lincoln s Hat will be a gorgeous book and a great gift for anyone interested in one of the most iconic figures in American history."

Hell Itself: The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864


Chris Mackowski - 2016
    A more unpromising theatre of war was never seen, said another.Yet here, in the spring of 1864, the Civil War escalated to a new level of horror.Ulysses S. Grant, commanding all Federal armies, opened the campaign with a vow to never turn back. Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, moved into the Wilderness to block Grant s advance. Immovable object intercepted irresistible force and the Wilderness burst into flame.With the forest itself burning around them, men died by the thousands. The armies bloodied each other without mercy and, at times, without any semblance of order. The brush grew so dense, and the smoke hung so thick, men could not see who stood next to them or in front of them. This, viewed as a battleground, was simply infernal, a Union soldier later said. It was, said another, hell itself. Driven by desperation, duty, confusion, and fire, soldiers on both sides marveled that anyone might make it out alive.For more than a decade, Chris Mackowski has guided visitors across the battlefields of the Overland Campaign. Now in Hell Itself he invites readers of the Emerging Civil War Series to join him in the Wilderness one of the most storied battlefields of the entire Civil War.

A West Virginia Rebel: Albert Gallatin Jenkins and His Border Rangers


Matthew A. Perry - 2016
    After the war began, Jenkins would form a Ranger command and conduct many raids in the area that would become West Virginia. Jenkins would fight at Gettysburg and would eventually die for his cause. Against the backdrop of West Virginia statehood and the sectional strife of the Civil War, this book investigates one man's decision to fight against his own neighbors and eventually give the last full measure for his cause.

Citizen of a Wider Commonwealth: Ulysses S. Grant's Postpresidential Diplomacy


Edwina S. Campbell - 2016
    Grant, along with his family and friends, embarked on a two-year world tour that took him from Liverpool to Yokohama with stops throughout Europe and Asia. Biographies of Grant deal very briefly, if at all, with this tour and generally treat it as a pleasure trip filled with sightseeing, shopping, wining, and dining. Far from an extended vacation, however, Grant’s travels in fact constituted a diplomatic mission sanctioned by the U.S. government. In this revealing volume, Edwina S. Campbell chronicles Grant’s journey—the first diplomatic mission ever undertaken by a former U.S. president—and demonstrates how it marked a decided turning point in the role of the United States in world affairs. Traveling commercially and on U.S. Navy warships, Grant visited ports of call throughout the British Empire, Europe, and Asia, including Britain, France, Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Ireland, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, and Japan. Along the way, he met with monarchs, ministers, and average citizens, creating the model for the summitry and public diplomacy practiced by future American presidents and articulating concepts of national self-determination, international organization, and the peaceful settlement of international disputes decades before Elihu Root’s advocacy of binding international arbitration and Woodrow Wilson’s proposal for the League of Nations. Campbell reveals Grant to be a skillful envoy who brought to his travels the deep interest in foreign policy issues he had shown during his administration. Grant confirmed the United States’ commitment to Anglo-American cooperation, demonstrated America’s interest in the territorial integrity of China, affirmed American faith in universal (male) suffrage as the basis for governmental legitimacy, and asserted the importance of an international order based on equality and justice for all states and their citizens. Grant’s efforts shaped not only John Hay’s Open Door policy in 1899–1900 but also the broader American approach to twentieth-century international relations. Throughout the trip, Julia Grant proved essential to the success of her husband’s mission, and Campbell tells how the couple impressed people around the world with an enduring image of an American president and first lady. By illuminating the significance of Grant’s often overlooked postpresidential travels, Citizen of a Wider Commonwealth establishes the eighteenth president as a key diplomat whose work strongly influenced the direction of future U.S. foreign policy and contributes substantially to the study of American international relations.

This Army Does Not Retreat: The Memoirs of General George H. Thomas


Jack M. Zackin - 2016
    Thomas was a very private person. One of the few Civil War commanders not to write his memoirs, he also ordered his wife to burn his correspondence and private papers upon his death. This hasn’t stopped historians from reconstructing his life. Thomas was one of the Union’s finest generals and showed great intelligence and courage throughout his military service. With this book, author Jack M. Zackin sheds light on Thomas’s story, creating a historically detailed work, structured as a personal memoir, to honor the life and times of this great man. Growing up in southeast Virginia, Thomas witnessed some of the biggest moments in American history. After his family was forced to flee when Nat Turner’s slave rebellion devastated the countryside, Thomas went on to graduate from West Point and participate in the Second Seminole War, where he battled his adversaries in the dark Florida swamps. As commander of an artillery battery during the Mexican-American War, he saved Zachary Taylor’s army from Santa Anna’s Mexican military. Zackin deftly shows how these experiences influenced Thomas’s personal beliefs, his politics, and his military strategies. During the Civil War Thomas’s bold actions were brilliant, explosive, and unforgettable.

Reminiscences of My Life in Camp With the 33d United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S. C. Volunteers


Susie King B 1848 Taylor - 2016
    This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Civil War Soldiers' Orphan Schools of Pennsylvania 1864-1889


O. David Gold - 2016
    A bureaucrat of the system wrote a so-called history in 1873 but it is very self-serving and devoid of any critical analysis. Also included, a bonus feature on the Ill-Fated Gettsyburg Orphanage.The Soldier's Orphan Schools of Pennsylvania, 1864- 1889 were unique to the history of the nation. They were the first historical example of a government attempting to nurture and educate the children of soldiers killed in war. During the 25 years of its existence, over ten thousand children passed through the Soldiers' Orphan Schools of Pennsylvania.Established largely through the efforts of Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin, they were not orphanages but privately owned boarding schools funded by the state which took in soldiers' orphans between the ages of eight and sixteen.While they designed a rigid academic plan of studies, the well-known professional educators who supervised the system for the state were mainly interested in the moral development of these children from the lower strata of society. Discipline, hard work, and obedience were the principal aims of those who ran the schools. Intellectual development was always secondary.Located mainly in the rural and agricultural areas of the state, the Soldier's Orphan Schools were challenged by the new economic and social forces of the latter nineteenth century.In a state renowned for its savage partisan politics, the Pennsylvania Soldiers' Orphan Schools got emeshed in a so-called scandal which involved the Democratic governor and the GOP opposition. Charges of neglect and fraud dominated the political press for months. This episode of 1886 soured the public on the system of relief established during the Civil War.An add-on chapter concludes the book - The Ill-Fated Gettysburg Orphanage. This institution was like a counterpoint to the S.O.S. The latter was a government sponsored creation. The orphanage in Gettysburg for soldiers' orphans was a private endeavor with no government supervision or financial involvement.This is truly an amazing story beginning with the battle of Gettysburg, the discovery of a dead soldier clutching the picture of his three children, the search for his identity, the sale of the picture to raise funds for an orphanage, its life from 1866-1877, and its closing largely because of a "cruel headmistress" who among many "evil acts" kept her charges in an underground torture chamber. This section features the Lunden Family Letters, printed for the first time. The three Lunden children corresponded with their mother while under the care of the notorious headmistress, Rosa Carmichael.The book is enhanced by 170 photographs and drawings.

Extreme Civil War: Guerrilla Warfare, Environment, and Race on the Trans-Mississippi Frontier


Matthew M. Stith - 2016
    Matthew M. Stith's Extreme Civil War focuses on Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian Territory to examine the physical and cultural frontiers that challenged Confederate and Union forces alike. A disturbing narrative emerges where conflict indiscriminately beset troops and families in a region that continually verged on social and political anarchy. With hundreds of small fights disbursed over the expansive borderland, fought by civilians -- even some women and children -- as much as by soldiers and guerrillas, this theater of war was especially savage.Despite connections to the political issues and military campaigns that drove the larger war, the irregular conflict in this border region represented a truly disparate war within a war. The blend of violence, racial unrest, and frontier culture presented distinct challenges to combatants, far from the aid of governmental services. Stith shows how white Confederate and Union civilians faced forces of warfare and the bleak environmental realities east of the Great Plains while barely coexisting with a number of other ethnicities and races, including Native Americans and African Americans. In addition to the brutal fighting and lack of basic infrastructure, the inherent mistrust among these communities intensified the suffering of all citizens on America's frontier.Extreme Civil War reveals the complex racial, environmental, and military dimensions that fueled the brutal guerrilla warfare and made the Trans-Mississippi frontier one of the most difficult and diverse pockets of violence during the Civil War.

The Boy Soldier: Edwin Jemison and the Story Behind the Most Remarkable Portrait of the Civil War


Alexandra Filipowski - 2016
    

The End of the Civil War: The History of the Battles and Events that Destroyed the Confederacy and Finished the War Between the States


Charles River Editors - 2016
    Since the war's start over 150 years ago, the battles have been subjected to endless debate among historians and the generals themselves. The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history, and had the two sides realized it would take 4 years and inflict over a million casualties, it might not have been fought. Since it did, however, historians and history buffs alike have been studying and analyzing the biggest battles ever since. By the close of 1864, Abraham Lincoln had been reelected, the Union army had taken Nashville from General Hood, and Sherman had concluded his total war, “slash-and-burn” march of destruction to Savannah, Georgia, offering it as a Christmas present to Lincoln. Nevertheless, with everything seemingly falling to pieces, the South still held out hope of some sort of miracle, and Davis even attempted to send a peace delegation to meet with Lincoln in the early months of 1865. On January 28, 1865 as Union General Ulysses S. Grant was continuing to lay siege to Lee’s army at Petersburg, Virginia, Davis sent three commissioners headed by Vice-President Stephens to initiate informal peace talks with Lincoln. By February 3, however, the talks, known as the Hampton Roads Conference, came to a stalemate as Lincoln would accept nothing less than total union, while Davis would only accept Southern independence. To most observers, the South was clearly reaching its end, but Davis had no intention of quitting the war. Even while he was fleeing, he attempted to order Confederate generals in the field to keep fighting. On April 9, 1865, Lee formally surrendered his weary army to Grant at Appomattox. Appomattox is frequently cited as the end of the Civil War, but there still remained several Confederate armies across the country, mostly under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, the same commander who arrived with reinforcements by rail during the First Battle of Bull Run and gave the South hope with victory in the first major battle. Of course, just as the war was nearing its end, its most shocking event took place. Until April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth was one of the most famous actors of his time, and President Abraham Lincoln had even watched him perform. But his most significant performance at a theater did not take place on the stage. That night, Booth became one of history’s most infamous assassins when he assassinated President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. All the while, the war technically continued. On April 26, 1865, Johnston defied Davis’s orders and surrendered all of his forces to General Sherman. Over the next month, the remaining Confederate forces would surrender or quit. The last skirmish between the two sides took place May 12-13, ending ironically with a Confederate victory at the Battle of Palmito Ranch in Texas. As fate would have it, the last fighting of the Civil War took place two days after Davis had been captured in Georgia, and his capture remained controversial for several decades.On December 25, 1868, treason charges were officially dropped against him, much to Davis’ chagrin.

Manhunt


James L. Swanson - 2016
    From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness.James L. Swanson's Manhunt is a fascinating tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal. A gripping hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters, this is history as you've never read it before.

Flaming Frontier


Gordon Landsborough - 2016
     But that was before the Cole gang geld up the Tombstone Flyer and took something far more valuable than they knew from Senator Claude C. Hooker. The Senator is willing to pay big bucks to get it back and for Tex McQuade, it’s an offer he can’t refuse. But the shine soon wears off when the Cole gang get their hands on Tex and learn the Senator’s secret just in time to get captured by Mexicans. Whatever it is, it’s a secret so powerful that when Pancho, leader of the Mexican raiding party, sees it, he teams up straight away with the Cole gang. Pancho raids along the border with the Cole gang in tow and with the border towns in chaos, it looks like no one can stop them. And there’s a girl of course – Lavender Grey – sharp as a whip and beautiful to boot. Can Tex find out the Senator’s secret, capture Pancho and get the girl? Fast-paced, funny and full of action, Flaming Frontier is a whirlwind journey back to the Old West. Praise for Gordon Landsborough 'A punchy tale coupled with plenty of action - an engaging read!' - Philip McCormac, bestselling western author Gordon Landsborough (1913-1984) was a publisher, author and bookseller. Writing tales about the exploits of gun-toting cowboys fighting out on the arid sands of the Wild West, Landsborough was himself a pioneering in the English paperback publishing world of the 1950s. He was widely known amongst his peers as the ‘maverick publishing genius’. Pioneering Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK’s leading independent digital publisher. We publish new and classic westerns by authors from the US and the UK. Follow us on Twitter: @PioneeringPress Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/PioneeringPress

100 Days in the Life of Rutherford Hayes


Eric Ebinger - 2016
    Ignored-or worse-dismissed as an average president, Hayes has, since he left office in 1881, become one of the least regarded presidents in United States history. It is time for the tide to turn. He was not flashy. He was not loud. He did not beat his chest and demand attention. He was a man who has received little if any of the recognition to which he is entitled. In this consolidated biography, presidential enthusiast Eric Ebinger selects 100 days in the life of Hayes which, he believes, best represent Hayes' character. Employing the dramatic and revealing Hayes diary, Ebinger walks the reader through a remarkable, passionate, and ultimately, noble life. One thing is guaranteed--Rutherford B. Hayes does not disappoint.

Our Heritage to Save (The Battle for Heritage #2)


Ryana Lynn Miller - 2016
    Family. Freedom. What would you be willing to do to protect them? This is the question that the soldiers of the Blue and the Gray asked themselves multiple times no doubt during the War Between the States. And the Mason family is not exempt from answering it.“I have sons fighting in both armies, and that is not acceptable to me. My younger son chose his…his ‘country’ over his family.”Seth’s eyes were sincere as he slowly said, “Hard decisions have to be made in time of war, sir. I have cousins in the Union army as well. You’re right, it hurts. It hurts my mama a lot, because she’s from up north. But the rights of life, liberty and property must be defended.”Join the Masons as they enter the second year of conflict between the Confederacy and the Union. As loyalties are tested, some soldiers must choose between their beliefs and their families. Be reminded that war is not all glory, but also a good deal of anxiety, sorrow and broken dreams.May the whole family enjoy this story as they seek a closer relationship with the Lord and learn more about our Nation’s history.

The Cotillion Ball Saga: Books 7-9


Becky Lower - 2016
    The tumultuous conclusion to the Cotillion Ball Saga proves that all’s fair in love and war.Expressly Yours, Samantha: To escape her wicked uncle, Samantha Hughes cuts her hair to pose as a man and become Sam Hughes, a Pony Express rider. Valerian Fitzpatrick, too, joins the hard-riding circuit in an attempt to escape life in the family business. As he and Sam grow close, he’s more than willing to protect he secret, but when she’s forced to run yet again, does a future with Sam mean giving up the freedom he’s always craved?A Widow’s Salvation: Widow Pepper Fitzpatrick Brown honors her sacrifice by volunteering at the army hospital while raising three rambunctious boys. Colonel Elijah Williams, the head surgeon at MacDougall Army Hospital in the Bronx, can’t shake his experiences in the bloody war … until he meets Pepper, who fears loving and losing again. It’s hard to find happiness in a war-torn United States, but these two stand a fighting chance—if they can save what’s left of their hearts.The Forgotten Debutante: Saffron Fitzpatrick spent her teenage years mourning the dead rather than dancing at her debutante ball, with the exception of one forbidden kiss with solider Ezekiel Boone, headed home from the battlefield after his brothers died at Chancellorsville. Fate reunites the couple three years later, and they discover unexpected common ground and begin to build a relationship. But though the war is over, a future together may still elude them … especially if Saffron’s brother and the U.S. Army have anything to say about it.

The United States Colored Troops: The History and Legacy of the Black Soldiers Who Fought in the American Civil War


Charles River Editors - 2016
    This is your golden opportunity." – Frederick Douglass After the Battle of Fort Sumter made clear that there would be war between the North and South, support for both the Union and Confederacy rose. Two days after the surrender of the fort, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call-to-arms asking for 75,000 volunteers, a request that would rely on Northern states to organize and train their men. While most Americans had hoped to avert war, many abolitionists had come to view war as inevitable, and the news from Fort Sumter suggested a chance to rectify the country’s original sin through the defeat of the South. Though abolitionists were a minority that was mostly confined to New England and often branded as radicals, they had long sought to end slavery and secure basic civil rights for blacks. One of the most famous abolitionists, the escaped slave Frederick Douglass, realized immediately what kind of opportunity the Civil War presented to all blacks, whether they were slaves or free: "Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship." In 1861, Lincoln was particularly concerned about alienating the border slave states that had not joined the Confederacy, particularly Kentucky and Missouri. The fighting at Fort Sumter had already driven Virginia into the Confederacy, and Lincoln rightly worried that the conscription of black soldiers might alienate whites in the North and the border states. As he famously put it, “I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.” When Generals John C. Frémont and David Hunter issued proclamations emancipating slaves in their military regions and permitting them to sign up for active duty, the Lincoln Administration swiftly and sternly revoked their orders. Ultimately, and perhaps not surprisingly, the War Department would only change its tune once it felt that doing so was a military necessity. Most notably, even before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the Union had organized its first black regiment; in July of 1862, General David Hunter, the same one whose emancipation order had caused a political crisis in 1861, impressed slaves in the South Carolina Sea Islands and enlisted them in the Union Army to deprive the Confederates of the ability to rely on them. While it was obviously a sensitive issue to emancipate slaves in border states, Lincoln clearly understood the military value gained by adding Southern slaves to the Union war effort, and it was a logical stepping stone from Hunter’s actions to simply recruiting blacks to aid the North. In time, the addition of black soldiers would help turn the tide of the war, adding hundreds of thousands of soldiers to the ranks, and the U.S. Colored Troops would fight in some of the most famous battles of the war, including at Fort Wagner, Fort Pillow, and at the Battle of the Crater during the siege of Petersburg. While there continues to be controversy over the way Southern slaves were utilized by the Confederacy, it’s unquestionable that freedmen and escaped slaves were crucial to lifting the North to victory from 1863-1865.

Markievicz: A Most Outrageous Rebel


Lindie Naughton - 2016
    A natural leader, 'Madame', as she was known to thousands of Dubliners, took an active part in the 1916 Rising and was one of the few leaders to escape execution. Instead, she spent an arduous year in an English prison, surrounded by murderers, prostitutes, and thieves. Later, during another stretch in prison, she made history as the first woman elected to the House of Commons. Lindie Naughton's compelling biography sheds light on all facets of Markievicz's life-her privileged upbringing in County Sligo, her adventures as an art student in London and Paris, her marriage to an improbable Polish count, her political education, her several prison stretches, and her emergence as one of the pivotal figures in early 20th-century Ireland. Constance Markievicz, a woman with a huge heart, battled all her adult life to establish an Irish republic based on cooperation and equality for all. Her message is as relevant today as it was a century ago. [Subject: Irish Studies, History, Biography, Gender Studies]

The New York Times Disunion: A History of the Civil War


Edward L Widmer - 2016
    The works were startling in their range and direction, some takingon major topics, like the Gettysburg Address and the Battle of Fredericksburg, while others tackled subjects whose seemingly incidental quality yielded unexpected riches and new angles. Some come from the country's leading historians; others from those for whom the war figured in private ways, involving an ancestor or a letter found in a trunk. Disunion received wide acclaim for featuring some of the most original thinking about the Civil War in years. For millions of readers, Disunion came to define the Civil War sesquicentennial.Now the historian Ted Widmer, along with Clay Risen and George Kalogerakis of The New York Times, has curated a collection of these pieces, covering the entire history of the Civil War, from Lincoln's election to Appomattox and beyond. Moving chronologically and thematically across all four years ofhostilities, this comprehensive and engrossing work examines secession, slavery, battles, and domestic and global politics. Here are previously unheard voices-of women, freed African Americans, and Native Americans-alongside those of Lincoln, Grant, and Lee, portrayed in human as well as historicalscale. David Blight sheds light on how Frederick Douglass welcomed South Carolina's secession-an event he knew would catapult the abolitionist movement into the spotlight; Elizabeth R. Varon explores how both North and South clamored to assert that the nation's ladies, symbolic of moral purity, had sided with them; Harold Holzer deciphers Lincoln's official silence between his election to the presidency and his inauguration-what his supporters named masterful inactivity-and the effects it had on the splintering country.More than any single volume ever published, Disunion reveals the full spectrum of America's bloodiest conflict and illuminates its living legacies.

All the Fighting They Want: The Atlanta Campaign from Peachtree Creek to the City's Surrender, July 18–September 2, 1864 (Emerging Civil War Series)


Stephen Davis - 2016
    Once one of the ablest division commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia, he found himself, by the spring of 1864, in the war’s Western Theater. Recently recovered from grievous wounds sustained at Chickamauga, he suddenly found himself thrust into command of the Confederacy’s ill-starred army even as Federals pounded on the door of the Deep South’s greatest untouched city, Atlanta.His predecessor, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, had failed to stop the advance of armies under Federal commander William T. Sherman, who had pushed and maneuvered his way from Chattanooga, Tennessee, right to Atlanta’s very doorstep. Johnston had been able to do little to stop him.The crisis could not have been more acute.Hood, an aggressive risk-taker, threw his men into the fray with unprecedented vigor. Sherman welcomed it.“We’ll give them all the fighting they want,” Sherman said.He proved a man of his word.In All the Fighting They Want, Georgia native Steve Davis, the world’s foremost authority on the Atlanta campaign, tells the tale of the last great struggle for the city. His Southern sensibility and his knowledge of the battle, accumulated over a lifetime of living on the ground, make this an indispensable addition to the acclaimed Emerging Civil War Series.

Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery: The Other Thirteenth Amendment and the Struggle to Save the Union


Daniel W Crofts - 2016
    Lincoln always hated slavery, but he also believed it to be legal where it already existed, and he never imagined fighting a war to end it. In 1861, as part of a last-ditch effort to preserve the Union and prevent war, the new president even offered to accept a constitutional amendment that barred Congress from interfering with slavery in the slave states. Lincoln made this key overture in his first inaugural address.Crofts unearths the hidden history and political maneuvering behind the stillborn attempt to enact this amendment, the polar opposite of the actual Thirteenth Amendment of 1865 that ended slavery. This compelling book sheds light on an overlooked element of Lincoln's statecraft and presents a relentlessly honest portrayal of America's most admired president. Crofts rejects the view advanced by some Lincoln scholars that the wartime momentum toward emancipation originated well before the first shots were fired. Lincoln did indeed become the Great Emancipator, but he had no such intention when he first took office. Only amid the crucible of combat did the war to save the Union become a war for freedom.

At Gettysburg and Elsewhere (Expanded, Annotated): The Civil War Memoir of John Gibbon


John Gibbon - 2016
    John Gibbon's recollections of his service at Gettysburg and other great battles is frank and personal. This is not an overview of great battles but a soldier's account of the trials and triumphs of four years of horrific conflict. Gibbon wrote plainly about the great men with whom he served, some of whom he greatly admired and some who were difficult. Here are anecdotes of Lincoln, Grant, Meade, Hancock, Hooker, Pope, and many others that you won't read anywhere else. Gibbon was a central figure at Gettysburg, with Pickett's Charge aimed right at the forces he commanded. Wounded on the third day of the battle, he supplemented his memoir with portions of the outstanding narrative of that day by his aide, Lieutenant Frank Haskell. Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers, tablets, and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

Washington's KKK: The Union League During Southern Reconstruction


John Chodes - 2016
     The “official” version of Southern Reconstruction is that there was a reign of terror — a systematic murder and intimidation by the “white Southern ruling class” who were determined to keep free people of colour in a virtual state of slavery. The real picture is a good deal more complicated. One can find plenty of material about conflict, intimidation, and killing in America during the period 1865-1877; but the Marxist class conflict formulary of history — also known as Political Correctness—takes for granted as fact what is clearly partisan propaganda of the time. They never ask the essential factual and moral question: Who initiated violence? John Chodes shows that the violence was begun by the Republicans through the establishment of the Union League. The Union League was a Northern organisation with the mission of maintaining the illegal and undemocratic control of the Republican Party in the South. Its mobs of Black “militia” led by Carpetbaggers engaged in intimidation, theft, harassment of the innocent, and murder. They deliberately provoked violent response. Their coercion was directed not only at whites, but towards the freedmen who refused to support the Republican regime. In other words, the Union League used the methods of the Ku Klux Klan before the Klan came into existence — the Klan before the Klan! *** This title is enrolled in Kindle MatchBook. FREE if print edition is purchased on Amazon.

The Iron Brigade: The History of the Famous Union Army Brigade During the Civil War


Charles River Editors - 2016
    Army brigades over the last century and a half, but it has become almost entirely synonymous with the Civil War soldiers who fought in the brigade for the Army of the Potomac. Also known as the “Iron Brigade of the West,” “Rufus King’s Brigade” and the “Black Hat Brigade,” the Iron Brigade was comprised of the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiments, the 19th Indiana, Battery B of the 4th U.S. Light Artillery, and later, the 24th Michigan. Wisconsin governor Alexander William Randall had hoped to organize an all-Wisconsin brigade to contribute to the Union’s Civil War effort, but the U.S. Army dispersed Wisconsin regiments to different areas as needs arose. Nevertheless, Wisconsin regiments comprised a majority of the brigade, and it would distinguish itself as the only all-Western brigade in the Army of the Potomac. It would come to be recognized for its unique uniforms, strong discipline, and “iron” disposition, earning the name during the Maryland Campaign both for its tenacity and for the costs paid by fighting so hard. Naturally, historians have focused on the battles where the Iron Brigade earned its name and demonstrated its reputation. Renowned Civil War historian Alan T. Nolan wrote and published the most complete military history of the Iron Brigade in 1961, tracing the brigade’s activity in the Civil War from the first mustering of Wisconsin regiments to the battle of Gettysburg. Nolan’s The Iron Brigade: A Military History served as the authority on Iron Brigade history for decades and called Gettysburg the Iron Brigade’s “last stand,” arguing that the battle was where the brigade lost its Western character. Since the publication of Nolan’s book in 1961, however, new sources—including letters and journals of men in the brigade—have been discovered, providing new depth to the history of the Iron Brigade. Thus, scholars in more recent years have contributed to the history of the Iron Brigade by focusing on the character and contributions of different regiments within the Iron Brigade, or by picking up where Nolan left off at the Battle of Gettysburg. Historians like Lance J. Herdegen argue that there is much more to be learned about the Iron Brigade by examining its struggle in the years after Gettysburg. In The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory: The Black Hats from Bull Run to Appomattox and Thereafter (2012), Herdegen provides a deeper account not only of the remnants of the Iron Brigade in the last two years of the Civil War, but also of its individual soldiers during and after the war. Exploring the experiences of members of the Iron Brigade before, during and after the Civil War contributes to a better understanding of their rise to fame and glory, and the cost of their sacrifice. The Iron Brigade: The History of the Famous Union Army Brigade During the Civil War traces the development of the Iron Brigade in the early years of the Civil War, examining the battles that fostered its reputation as one of the best combat infantry brigades in the Union army. In addition, this book looks at what the later years of the war and thereafter meant to Black Hat veterans, and what made men from the western frontier want to fight in a war far from home.

Bleeding Kansas: Slavery, Expansion, and Sectional Conflict in the Civil War Era


Michael E. Woods - 2016
    Combining political, social, and military history, "Bleeding Kansas" contextualizes and analyzes prewar and wartime clashes in Kansas and Missouri and traces how these conflicts have been remembered ever since. Michael E. Woods s compelling narrative of the Kansas-Missouri border struggle embraces the diverse perspectives of white northerners and southerners, women, Native Americans, and African Americans. This wide-ranging and engaging text is ideal for undergraduate courses on the Civil War era, westward expansion, Kansas and/or Missouri history, nineteenth-century US history, and other related subjects. Supported by primary source documents and a robust companion website, this text allows readers to engage with and draw their own conclusions about this contentious era in American History."

Lone Star Unionism, Dissent, and Resistance: Other Sides of Civil War Texas


Jesús F. de la Teja - 2016
    Yet as the contributors to this volume amply demonstrate, the often neglected stories of Texas Unionists and dissenters paint a far more complicated picture. Ranging in time from the late 1850s to the end of Reconstruction, Lone Star Unionism, Dissent, and Resistance restores a missing layer of complexity to the history of Civil War Texas. The authors—all noted scholars of Texas and Civil War history—show that slaves, freedmen and freedwomen, Tejanos, German immigrants, and white women all took part in the struggle, even though some never found themselves on a battlefield. Their stories depict the Civil War as a conflict not only between North and South but also between neighbors, friends, and family members. By framing their stories in the analytical context of the “long Civil War,” Lone Star Unionism, Dissent, and Resistance reveals how friends and neighbors became enemies and how the resulting violence, often at the hands of secessionists, crossed racial and ethnic lines. The chapters also show how ex-Confederates and their descendants, as well as former slaves, sought to give historical meaning to their experiences and find their place as citizens of the newly re-formed nation. Concluding with an account of the origins of Juneteenth—the nationally celebrated holiday marking June 19, 1865, when emancipation was announced in Texas—Lone Star Unionism, Dissent, and Resistance challenges the collective historical memory of Civil War Texas and its place in both the Confederacy and the United States. It provides material for a fresh narrative, one including people on the margins of history and dispelling the myth of a monolithically Confederate Texas.

Observing Hancock at Gettysburg: The General's Leadership Through Eyewitness Accounts


Paul E Bretzger - 2016
    On day one, he rallied fleeing troops and placed them in the formidable position the Union army occupied for the remainder of the battle. In a frantic few minutes on day two, he masterfully conducted reinforcements into a yawning gap in his defensive line, securing the position just moments before the Confederates advanced to try to take it. On the third day, he led the successful defense against the massive frontal assault known as Pickett's Charge. Understanding Hancock's pivotal actions at Gettysburg is essential to understanding the battle itself. This book covers his entire life and military career.

Abolitionizing Missouri: German Immigrants and Racial Ideology in Nineteenth-Century America


Kristen Layne Anderson - 2016
    Kristen Layne Anderson's Abolitionizing Missouri, however, is the first analysis of the reasons behind that opposition as well as the first exploration of the impact that the Civil War and emancipation had on German immigrants' ideas about race. Anderson focuses on the relationships between German immigrants and African Americans in St. Louis, Missouri, looking particularly at the ways in which German attitudes towards African Americans and the institution of slavery changed over time. Anderson suggests that although some German Americans deserved their reputation for racial egalitarianism, many others opposed slavery only when it served their own interests to do so. When slavery did not seem to affect their lives, they ignored it; once it began to threaten the stability of the country or their ability to get land, they opposed it. After slavery ended, most German immigrants accepted the American racial hierarchy enough to enjoy its benefits, and had little interest in helping tear it down, particularly when doing so angered their native-born white neighbors.Anderson's work counters prevailing interpretations in immigration and ethnic history, where until recently, scholars largely accepted that German immigrants were solidly antislavery. Instead, she uncovers a spectrum of Germans' antislavery positions and explores the array of individual motives driving such diverse responses.. In the end, Anderson demonstrates that Missouri Germans were more willing to undermine the racial hierarchy by questioning slavery than were most white Missourians, although after emancipation, many of them showed little interest in continuing to demolish the hierarchy that benefited them by fighting for black rights.

The Loyal West: Civil War and Reunion in Middle America


Matthew E. Stanley - 2016
    Here grew a Unionism steeped in the mythology of the Loyal West--a myth rooted in regional and racial animosities and the belief that westerners had won the war. Matthew E. Stanley's intimate study explores the Civil War, Reconstruction, and sectional reunion in this bellwether region. Using the lives of area soldiers and officers as a lens, Stanley reveals a place and a strain of collective memory that was anti-rebel, anti-eastern, and anti-black in its attitudes--one that came to be at the forefront of the northern retreat from Reconstruction and toward white reunion. The Lower Middle West's embrace of black exclusion laws, origination of the Copperhead movement, backlash against liberalizing war measures, and rejection of Reconstruction were all pivotal to broader American politics. And the region's legacies of white supremacy--from racialized labor violence to sundown towns to lynching--found malignant expression nationwide, intersecting with how Loyal Westerners remembered the war.A daring challenge to traditional narratives of section and commemoration, The Loyal West taps into a powerful and fascinating wellspring of Civil War identity and memory.

Gathering to Save a Nation: Lincoln and the Union's War Governors


Stephen D. Engle - 2016
    Engle examines how these politicians were pivotal in securing victory. In a time of limited federal authority, governors were an essential part of the machine that maintained the Union while it mobilized and sustained the war effort. Charged with the difficult task of raising soldiers from their home states, these governors had to also rally political, economic, and popular support for the conflict, at times against a backdrop of significant local opposition.Engle argues that the relationship between these loyal-state leaders and Lincoln's administration was far more collaborative than previously thought. While providing detailed and engaging portraits of these men, their state-level actions, and their collective cooperation, Engle brings into new focus the era's complex political history and shows how the Civil War tested and transformed the relationship between state and federal governments.

Everything You Were Taught about African-Americans and the Civil War Is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!


Lochlainn Seabrook - 2016
    President Abraham Lincoln intended the Emancipation Proclamation to be temporary and spent his entire adult life trying to deport blacks "back to Africa." These and a thousand other well researched but little known facts are clearly presented in Everything You Were Taught About African-Americans and the Civil War is Wrong, Ask a Southerner! by award-winning author and Southern historian Colonel Lochlainn Seabrook.Why have you never heard of these facts before? Because the Liberal enemies of the traditional, conservative South have been carefully suppressing them for the last 150 years. For if the truth were to get out, their fake "race war" would be exposed and the countless illegalities and crimes perpetuated by the North during Lincoln's unconstitutional assault on the American people and their inalienable rights would be revealed.Mr. Seabrook divides his book into three convenient sections: "African-Americans Before Lincoln's War," "African-Americans During Lincoln's War," and "African-Americans After Lincoln's War," touching on a host of fascinating topics ranging from indigenous African slavery, white American slavery, and the birth of black American slavery in the North, to black Confederate soldiers, black KKK members, and the birth of the American abolition movement in the South.The book includes hundreds of rare illustrations and photos, scores of eyewitness accounts, copious endnotes, a comprehensive index, and an exhaustive bibliography. The result of decades of study, this important historically accurate work, with its emphasis on racial unification, is a must-read. Not just for Civil War buffs and scholars, but for anyone seeking a deeper and more factual understanding of African-Americans and the Civil War without an anti-South bias. You will never look at this conflict and its black and white participants the same way again! Available in paperback and hardcover, with a foreword by African-American educator Gregory Newson. Destined to become an American classic.Civil War scholar Lochlainn Seabrook, a descendant of the families of Alexander H. Stephens and John S. Mosby, is the most prolific and popular pro-South writer in the world today. Known as the "new Shelby Foote," he is a recipient of the prestigious Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal and the author of over 50 books that have introduced hundreds of thousands to the truth about the War for Southern Independence. A seventh-generation Kentuckian of Appalachian heritage and the sixth great-grandson of the Earl of Oxford, Colonel Seabrook has a forty-year background in American and Southern history, and is the author of the international blockbuster Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!His other titles include: The Great Yankee Coverup: What the North Doesn't Want You to Know About Lincoln's War; Confederacy 101: Amazing Facts You Never Knew About America's Oldest Political Tradition; Confederate Flag Facts: What Every American Should Know About Dixie's Southern Cross; Women in Gray: A Tribute to the Ladies Who Supported the Southern Confederacy; Everything You Were Taught About American Slavery is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!; A Rebel Born: A Defense of Nathan Bedford Forrest; Abraham Lincoln: The Southern View; and Give This Book to a Yankee: A Southern Guide to the Civil War for Northerners.

Another Year Finds Me in Texas: The Civil War Diary of Lucy Pier Stevens


Vicki Adams Tongate - 2016
    Little did she know how drastically her life would change on April 4, 1861, when the outbreak of the Civil War made returning home impossible. Stranded in enemy territory for the duration of the war, how would she reconcile her Northern upbringing with the Southern sentiments surrounding her?Lucy Stevens’s diary—one of few women’s diaries from Civil War–era Texas and the only one written by a Northerner—offers a unique perspective on daily life at the fringes of America’s bloodiest conflict. An articulate, educated, and keen observer, Stevens took note seemingly of everything—the weather, illnesses, food shortages, parties, church attendance, chores, schools, childbirth, death, the family’s slaves, and political and military news. As she confided her private thoughts to her journal, she unwittingly revealed how her love for her Texas family and the Confederate soldier boys she came to care for blurred her loyalties, even as she continued to long for her home in Ohio. Showing how the ties of heritage, kinship, friendship, and community transcended the sharpest division in US history, this rare diary and Vicki Adams Tongate’s insightful historical commentary on it provide a trove of information on women’s history, Texas history, and Civil War history.

Fighting for General Lee: Confederate General Rufus Barringer and the North Carolina Cavalry Brigade


Sheridan Barringer - 2016
    'Fighting for General Lee: Confederate General Rufus Barringer and the North Carolina Cavalry Brigade' details his entire history for the first time. Barringer raised a company early in the war and fought with the 1st North Carolina Cavalry from the Virginia peninsula through Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. He was severely wounded in the face at Brandy Station, during the opening hours of the Gettysburg Campaign. Because of his severe wound, he missed the remainder of the Gettysburg Campaign, returning to his regiment in mid-October, 1863. Within three months, Barringer was a lieutenant colonel, and by June 1864 a brigadier general in command of the North Carolina Brigade, which fought the rest of the war with Lee and was nearly destroyed during the retreat from Richmond in 1865. The captured Barringer met President Lincoln at City Point, endured prison, and after the war did everything he could to convince North Carolinians to accept Reconstruction and heal the wounds of war.'Fighting for General Lee' by Sheridan R. Barringer draws upon a wide array of newspapers, diaries, letters, and previously unpublished family documents and photographs, as well as other firsthand accounts, to paint a broad, deep, and colorful portrait of an overlooked Southern cavalry commander. Despite its subject matter, the book is a balanced account that concludes Barringer was a dependable, hard-hitting warrior increasingly called upon to lead attacks against superior Union forces.This remarkable new biography teaches us many things. It is easy today to paint all who wore Confederate gray with a broad brush because they fought on the side to preserve slavery. Here, however, was a man who wielded the sword and then promptly sheathed it to follow a bolder vision. Barringer proved to be a bold champion of the poor, African Americans, and the masses. He was a Southern gentleman and man decades ahead of his time that made a difference in the lives of North Carolinians.REVIEWS General Rufus Barringer was a major figure in Confederate military history and enjoyed a colorful postwar career, but this is the first full biography of the soldier and the man. The undeserved historical neglect has been ably redressed in this volume, which relies to a large extent on primary research sources. It will be of interest to all Civil War enthusiasts, especially fans of Confederate cavalry operations and personalities. -- Edward G. Longacre, retired historian for the Department of Defense and author of numerous books, including 'Lee's Cavalrymen', 'Lincoln's Cavalrymen, and The Cavalry at Gettysburg Comrades' described him as a most excellent officer who displayed great skill and valor in battle, and as one of the best organizers and disciplinarians in the service, but until now, General Rufus Barringer escaped the attention of serious biographers. It fell to Sheridan Butch Barringer, a cousin of the Tar Heel cavalryman, to pen this welcome and deeply researched biography. 'Fighting for General Lee' ably fills a gap in the historiography of North Carolina's contribution to the war that will surely stand as the definitive word on General Barringer. -- Chris Hartley, author of 'Stuart s Tarheels: James B. Gordon and His North Carolina Cavalry in the Civil War'. Although General Rufus Barringer was a capable and accomplished commander of cavalry, for a variety of reasons he remains one of the least well-known of the Confederate mounted leaders. The very capable Barringer was involved in battles large and small. Mix in the fact that he was Stonewall Jackson's brother-in-law and his story becomes even more interesting. The author, a relative of the general, spent many years documenting the general's life and service to produce this well-written and deeply researched biography of his ancestor. It is a must-read for any student of Confederate cavalry operations in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War. -- Eric J. Wittenberg, historian and author of numerous books, including 'One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee s Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863', and 'Out Flew the Sabers: The Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863' 'Fighting for General Lee' may be an obvious labor of love for Sheridan Barringer, but it is also a serious biography that ably captures the life of a Tar Heel cavalry general whose account has long been neglected. Rufus Barringer fought at the head of a regiment, was wounded at Brandy Station, and ended the war as a brigadier general in Rooney Lee's division. Captured by Custer s cavalry near Namozine Church on April 3, 1865, Barringer became the first Confederate general taken prisoner during the final campaign of the war in Virginia. Sent back to City Point near Petersburg, the general's chance meeting with Abraham Lincoln exemplifies the healing the president would show toward the North's former enemies. -- Chris Calkins, author and historian, Petersburg, Virginia, and author of 'The Petersburg Campaign'.