While time-honored celebrations of Armistead and Pickett focus narrowly on moments at Gettysburg, primary sources declare the untold story of the best of men in the worst of times and refute Lost Cause myths surrounding Armistead and Pickett. Written by retired scientist J.K. Brandau, for the first time, Lions of the Dan widens the aperture to introduce real heroes and amazing deeds that have been suppressed until now. Brandau presents the experiences of real soldiers in their own words and highlights the much-ignored history of Southside Virginia, presenting the Civil War start to finish from a unique, regional perspective. Readers find pedestrian notions of the founding of the South's peculiar institution challenged as they read an objective account of Virginia's secession and celebrate the courage and devotion of soldiers on both sides.

    Peter Lee, who lived to the age of 98, worked all his life as a butler for the Stevens family, who were widely known for their vast fortune, engineering innovations, and development of the city of Hoboken.Who was Peter Lee? Poring over thousands of pages of deeds, letters, farm books, newspaper articles, and ledgers, Metz uncovered Lee’s ancestry, his mother’s fate, his father’s service in the War of 1812, and Peter’s residence near the home of a pioneering female journalist who hosted abolitionist Frederick Douglass during his many visits to Hoboken. Previously unexamined ledgers kept by Stevens elder John II were also found, revealing his deep investment in the slave trade. Beginning in the 18th century and ending at the dawn of the 20th, The Untold Life of Peter Lee narrates the story of a resilient man and his extended family, reporting on lives lived under Northern slavery and beyond.