Revered in his lifetime, Robert E. Lee achieved legendary status after his death. This memoir by Lee's son gathers a wealth of material written by the General, offering rare glimpses of the man behind the uniform, with scenes from family life and touching letters from a loving husband and father.

The American Civil War is filled with fascinating characters. This collection of biographical essays on the "winners and losers" of the Civil War covers some of the most intriguing: Ulysses S. Grant, George B. McClellan, Sam Houston, Albert Sidney Johnston, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and William Clarke Quantrill, to name just a few. In Articles of War you'll discover: Some Winners *Ulysses S. Grant, whose brilliant Vicksburg Campaign was a model of military strategy *John A. "Black Jack" Logan, one of the war's few successful political generals *Nathan Bedford Forrest, a natural military genius despite his "Lost Cause" Some Losers *George B. McClellan, whose lack of eagerness cost the Union two opportunities to win the war *Earl Van Dorn, a victim of sheer bad luck *Theophilus H. Holmes, the little-known incompetent, called "granny Holmes" by his own men Some Winners Who Became Losers *Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederacy's "General Who Might Have Been" *Leonidas Polk, whose initial good luck even

During the Civil War, cities, houses, forests, and soldiers' bodies were transformed into ""dead heaps of ruins,"" novel sights in the southern landscape. How did this happen, and why? And what did Americans-northern and southern, black and white, male and female-make of this proliferation of ruins? Ruin Nation is the first book to bring together environmental and cultural histories to consider the evocative power of ruination as an imagined state, an act of destruction, and a process of change. Megan Kate Nelson examines the narratives and images that Americans produced as they confronted the war's destructiveness. Architectural ruins-cities and houses-dominated the stories that soldiers and civilians told about the ""savage"" behaviour of men and the invasions of domestic privacy. The ruins of living things-trees and bodies-also provoked discussion and debate. People who witnessed forests and men being blown apart were plagued by anxieties about the impact of wartime technologies on nature and on individual identities. The obliteration of cities, houses, trees, and men was a shared experience. Nelson shows that this is one of the ironies of the war's ruination-in a time of the most extreme national divisiveness people found common ground as they considered the war's costs. And yet, very few of these ruins still exist, suggesting that the destructive practices that dominated the experiences of Americans during the Civil War have been erased from our national consciousness.

The 57th Virginia Infantry was one of five regiments in General Lewis Armistead's Brigade in Pickett's Charge, at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Prior to being Brigadier General, Armistead commanded the 57th Virginia. About 1,800 men joined the 57th, primarily from Franklin, Pittsylvania, Buckingham, Botetourt, and Albemarle County, but at least 15 bordering counties contributed men. Initial enlistments were from May-July of 1861, with the nucleus coming from 5 companies of Keen's Battalion. This publication gives detail on the battles, from Malvern Hill to Appomattox, and the prison camps many suffered through. The core of the book, however, is a quest for basic genealogical data on the men of the 57th Virginia, with a focus on their parents, wives, and location in 1860.

What really happened at Fort Pillow on April 12, 1864? The Union called it a massacre. The Confederacy called it necessity. TheTennessee spring came early that year, "awakening regional plants as warmer air and mois soil nurtured new life. Across the landscape could be seen the faint hint of green as sweet gum, hickory, oak cottonwood,...Sweet Williams, and wild dogwood added their hues." This serene backdrop in hardly the place where one would imagine such a one-sided military atrocity to take place. Although at first glance the numbers are hardly noteworthy, the casualty ratio speaks volumes on the event. Eyewitness accounts relate "vivid recollection" of the numerous and specific nature of the injuries suffered by the survivors." Controversy and scandal surround the Southern general Nathan Bedford Forrest. Why did it seem that he passively watched his men attack and mutilate more than one hundred apparently unarmed soldiers? Perhaps the biggest controversy involved racial prejudice. Was there a reason

War was no stranger to the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts. A small farming community at the outbreak of the Civil War, Sudbury stood ready to support the cause of the Union. Uriah and Mary Moore, a local farmer and his wife, parents of ten children, sent four sons off to fight for the Union. George Frederick Moore was twenty years old when he joined the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts Regiment in 1862, along with brother, Albert. Their brother, John, had enlisted in the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment and had been serving since 1861. In 1864, a fourth brother, Alfred, joined the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Regiment. The eighty-four letters in this collection span the years from August 1862 to the end of the War and include correspondence to and from Pvt. George Moore and five family members. George's personal diaries from 1863 and 1864 are also included, as well as the 1867 diary of Sarah Jones, the girl he married. Through research the family is traced long after the war, revealing their travels and accomplishments. Explanatory passages that accompany these letters highlight the campaigns of the Thirty-fifth Massachusetts through the war years. George Moore took part in battles from South Mountain and Antietam to Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Campbell's Station, and the Siege of Knoxville. He participated in the Battles of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and the assault on Petersburg. The letters to and from George Moore and his loved ones provide an intimate glimpse of the trials, not only of the soldiers, but of the family who sent their boys off to war.

The Indian War of 1864 chronicles one of the bloodiest conflicts between the European settlers and military forces of the United States, and the Native American tribes. A shocking account of the bloodshed and damage wrought as white settlers moved relentlessly westward during the 19th century, this book lays bare the scale of the conflicts with the Native Americans. Furthermore it is authentic: a first-hand, somewhat biographical recollection of the conflict penned by a young American cavalryman posted to the Western frontier with the mission of securing it for settlers. The conflicts took place simultaneously with the American Civil War, and it was thus that rumors of the Confederacy joining with the Native American tribes in hindering the expansion of the United States are present. Despite its title, this book is not entirely about the skirmishes fought: it includes descriptions of the land, the fledgling frontier society of the 'Wild West' era, and members of the native tribes.