Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, AND HIS lilomaunt abroad hiring tlje tDar. CHAPTER I. MY IMPRESSMENT. " Here is a piece of James Franklin's printing press, Mr. Townsend," said Mr. Pratt to me, at Newport the other day, ? " Ben. Franklin wrote for the paper, and set type upoit. The press was imported from England in 1730, or thereabouts." He produced a piece of wood, a foot in length, and then laid it away in its drawer very sacredly. " I should like to write to that press, Mr. Pratt," I said, ? "there would be no necessity in such a case of getting off six columns for to-night's mail." " Well " said Mr. Pratt, philosophically, " I have a theory that a man grows up to machinery. As your day so shall your strength be. I believe you have telegraphed up to a House instrument, haven't you ? " "Mr. Pratt," cried I, with some indignation, "your memory is too good. This is Newport, and I have come down to see the surf. Pray, do not remind me of hot hours in a newspaper office, the click of a Morse dispatch, and work far into the midnight " So I left Mr. Pratt, of the Newport Mercury, with anostentation of affront, and bade James Brady, the boatman, hoist sail and carry me over to Dumpling Rocks. On the grassy parapet of the crumbling tower which once served the purposes of a fort, the transparent water hungering at its base, the rocks covered with fringe spotting the channel, the ocean on my right hand lost in its own vastncss, and Newport out of mind save when the town bells rang, or the dip of oars beat in the still swell of Narragansett, I lay down, chafing and out of temper, to curse the only pleasurable labor I had ever undertaken. To me all places were workshops: the seaside, the springs, the summer mountains, the cataracts, the theatres, th...

The Eighth Connecticut Infantry was one of the longest-serving Union volunteer regiments in the Civil War and saw action throughout the Eastern Theater, from Burnside's expedition in North Carolina to the battles at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Cold Harbor and Petersburg, and campaigns throughout Virginia. Drawing on letters and diaries of the soldiers themselves, this first ever regimental history of the Eighth chronicles four years of combat service as they unfolded, with maps newly created from historical accounts.

Thousands of men suffered and died in the massive orgy of gunfire and death that historians call the Civil War. Most have received little or no recognition for their service and sacrifice. On the other hand, the battle deaths of brothers Robert L. and Daniel McCook, Jr., from Ohio, got the full attention of an aroused nation, and the news media, because of the tragic and dramatic manner of their deaths along with their family's social status and political connections. The brothers came from a family that was known throughout the nation as "the Fighting McCooks." After serving at Shiloh and Chickamauga, Col. Daniel McCook was mortally wounded while leading his brigade, including the 52nd Ohio Infantry regiment, in an ill-advised and reckless assault up Georgia's Kennesaw Mountain in June of 1864. McCook was following the orders of his friend and former law partner, General W. T. Sherman. Brigadier General Robert L. McCook organized the 9th Ohio Infantry Regiment and distinguished himself in the western Virginia campaign. In the summer of 1862, he was shot and killed by a Rebel cavalryman while he was riding in an ambulance in northern Alabama. Because it was believed that his death was at the hands of a bushwhacker, it set off a firestorm of anger and outrage throughout the North.

* Provides a concise overview of the Civil War, including a look at the Reconstruction period * Includes primary documents, chronology, glossary and Who's Who guide to key figures * Highlights dramatic social and political changes occurring in the period

In May 1865, the final month of the Civil War, the U.S. Army arrested and prosecuted a sitting congressman in a military trial in the border state of Maryland, though the federal criminal courts in the state were functioning. Convicted of aiding and abetting paroled Confederate soldiers, Benjamin Gwinn Harris of Maryland's Fifth Congressional District was imprisoned and barred from holding public office.Harris was a firebrand-effectively a Confederate serving in Congress-and had long advocated the constitutionality of slavery and the right of states to secede from the Union. This first ever book-length analysis of the unusual trial examines the prevailing opinions in Southern Maryland and in the War Department regarding slavery, treason and the Constitution's guarantee of property rights and freedom of speech.

Although she was one of the leading thinkers and writers of the women's suffrage movement, Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) was largely written out of history. After working in collaboration with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and after serving as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association, Gage developed increasingly radical views on feminism, religious liberty, and equality under the law. She eventually parted ways with the suffrage movement and founded the more progressive Woman's National Liberal Union. In Witness to Rebellion, award-winning author Peter Svenson presents and examines Gage's last significant work, a scrapbook that collects newspaper clippings about the Civil War from the 1860s onward. Providing relevant contextual information, Svenson formats the content of the scrapbook to transform this important artifact into a readable work that offers a new and engaging perspective on nineteenth-century American history. Gage's scrapbook sheds light on her thinking, both as a feminist and a Union patriot, as she lived through the bloodshed and upheaval of the war years and their aftermath. Witness to Rebellion is a valuable resource not only for scholars of history, women's studies, and material culture, but also for general readers with interest in women's suffrage and the Civil War.

The book draws on letters, diaries, recent books and articles in History, but also relies on multi-disciplinary sources in politics and literature, along transnational comparisons to place the events in a broader perspective. The book invites the reader to embark with the soldiers and some civilians on their journey into the murderous events across the nation. The passage began with the heroic cliches that prevailed during the initial organization and embarkation of the armies. However the shock of battle and the weary life in camps brought new images of the war such as a bleak vision seeing the war as a chaotic absurdity, others began to suspect conspiratorial agencies behind the conflict, yet others sought to galvanize their support for the hard road ahead by invoking melodramatic metaphors as a crusade, and means of national redemption and punishment of the adversary. As the fighting intensified after the initial clashes of 1862, some believed that the hard war opened the way for imposing revolutionary changes such as upending the South's social structure providing social, economic and political equality to a new class-the ex-slaves. Finally, there were some who felt the war was a Sophoclean-Greek tragedy because the outcome and nature of the war proved contrary to what they had assumed the struggle would be about and what it would be like.

William Edmondson "Grumble" Jones was among the most notable Southwest Virginians to fight in the Civil War. The Washington County native graduated from Emory & Henry College and West Point. While an officer in the "Old Army," he watched helplessly as his wife drowned during the wreck of the steamship Independence. He resigned his commission in 1857. Resuming his military career as a Confederate officer, he was a mentor to the legendary John Singleton Mosby. His many battles included a clash with George Armstrong Custer near Gettysburg. An internal dispute with his commanding general, J.E.B. Stuart, resulted in Jones' court-martial in 1863. He rejoined the war during the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign and died in battle, leaving a mixed legacy.

Engineering Victory brings a fresh approach to the question of why the North prevailed in the Civil War. Historian Thomas F. Army, Jr., identifies strength in engineering-not superior military strategy or industrial advantage-as the critical determining factor in the war's outcome. Army finds that Union soldiers were able to apply scientific ingenuity and innovation to complex problems in a way that Confederate soldiers simply could not match. Skilled Free State engineers who were trained during the antebellum period benefited from basic educational reforms, the spread of informal educational practices, and a culture that encouraged learning and innovation. During the war, their rapid construction and repair of roads, railways, and bridges allowed Northern troops to pass quickly through the forbidding terrain of the South as retreating and maneuvering Confederates struggled to cut supply lines and stop the Yankees from pressing any advantage. By presenting detailed case studies from both theaters of the war, Army clearly demonstrates how the soldiers' education, training, and talents spelled the difference between success and failure, victory and defeat. He also reveals massive logistical operations as critical in determining the war's outcome.

Based on extensive research into newly discovered documents, this new edition of the popular volume offers an updated look at the daily lives of ordinary citizens caught up in the Civil War. When first published, Daily Life in Civil War America shifted the spotlight from the conflict's military operations and famous leaders to its affect on day-to-day living. Now this popular, groundbreaking work returns in a thoroughly updated new edition, drawing on an expanded range of journals, journalism, diaries, and correspondence to capture the realities of wartime life for soldiers and citizens, slaves and free persons, women and children, on both sides of the conflict. In addition to chapter-by-chapter updating, the edition features new chapters on two important topics: the affects of the war on families, focusing on the absence of men on the home front and the plight of nearly 26,000 children orphaned by the war; and the activities of the Copperheads, anti-Confederate border residents, and other Southern pacifist groups. Includes excerpts from a wide range of first-person original writings, including diaries, letters, journals, and newspaper articles Presents over 50 images, including photographs, posters, and contemporary illustrations, much of it from the author's own collection

As mid-19th century America erupted in violence with the invasion of Mexico and the outbreak of the Civil War, Irish immigrants enthusiastically joined the fray in large numbers, on both sides, mainly seeking stable employment. In Southern cities Irish volunteers vigorously backed the Confederacy; in the North they were vastly over-represented in the US Army and Navy. They were often seen as disruptive in national affairs - Confederate General Patrick Cleburne called for the enlistment of slaves in exchange for their freedom, while in New York City Irish-led draft riots ensued when the Emancipation Proclamation made the war a liberating mission. History has honored the valor of many, such as the Irish Brigade at Gettysburg. This collection of essays examines the involvement of Irish men and women in American military life from 1840 to 1865.

"The Mississippi Secession Convention" is the first full treatment of any secession convention to date. Studying the Mississippi convention of 1861 offers insight into how and why southern states seceded and the effects of such a breech. Based largely on primary sources, this book provides a unique insight into the broader secession movement.

There was more to the secession convention than the mere act of leaving the Union, which was done only three days into the deliberations. The rest of the three-week January 1861 meeting as well as an additional week in March saw the delegates debate and pass a number of important ordinances that for a time governed the state. As seen through the eyes of the delegates themselves, with rich research into each member, this book provides a compelling overview of the entire proceeding.

The effects of the convention gain the most analysis in this study, including the political processes that, after the momentous vote, morphed into unlikely alliances. Those on opposite ends of the secession question quickly formed new political allegiances in a predominantly Confederate-minded convention. These new political factions formed largely over the issues of central versus local authority, which quickly played into Confederate versus state issues during the Civil War. In addition, author Timothy B. Smith considers the lasting consequences of defeat, looking into the effect secession and war had on the delegates themselves and, by extension, their state, Mississippi.

These letters chronicle the wartime courtship of a Confederate soldier and the woman he loved-a sister-in-law of Abraham Lincoln. It is a relative rarity for the correspondence of both writers in Civil War letter collections to survive, as they have here. Rarer still is how frequently and faithfully the two wrote, given how little they truly knew each other at the start of their exchange. As a romantic pair, Nathaniel Dawson and Elodie Todd had no earlier history; they had barely met when separated by the war. Letters were their sole lifeline to each other and their sole means of sharing their hopes and fears for a relationship (and a Confederacy) they had rashly embraced in the heady, early days of secession. The letters date from April 1861, when Nathaniel left for war as a captain in the Fourth Alabama Infantry, through April 1862, when the couple married. During their courtship through correspondence, Nathaniel narrowly escaped death in battle, faced suspicions of cowardice, and eventually grew war weary. Elodie had two brothers die while in Confederate service and felt the full emotional weight of belonging to the war's most famous divided family. Her sister Mary not only sided with the Union (as did five other Todd siblings) but was also married to its commander in chief. Here is an engrossing story of the Civil War, of Abraham Lincoln's shattered family, of two people falling in love, of soldiers and brothers dying nobly on the wrong side of history. The full Dawson-Todd correspondence comprises more than three hundred letters. It has been edited for this volume to focus tightly on their courtship. The complete, annotated text of all of the letters, with additional supporting material, will be made available online.

A study of the development of English opinion on the American Civil War, paying special attention to the issues of slavery, neutral rights, democracy, republicanism, trade and propaganda - a new interpretation. At the end of the American Civil War, both North and South condemned Britain for allegedly sympathising with the other side. Yet after the conflict, a traditional interpretation of the subject arose which divided English sentimentbetween progressivism siding with the Union and conservatism supporting the Confederacy. Despite historians subsequently questioning whether English opinion can be so easily divided, challenging certain aspects and arguments of this version of events, the traditional interpretation has persevered and remains the dominant view of the subject. This work posits that English public and political opinion was not, in fact, split between two such opposing camps- rather, that most in England were suspicious of both sides in the conflict, and even those who did take sides did not consist largely of any one particular social or political group. Covering the period from 1861 to 1865,Campbell traces the development of English opinion on the American Civil War, looking particularly at reaction to issues of slavery, neutral rights, democracy, republicanism, American expansionism,trade and propaganda. In so doing he offers a new interpretation of English attitudes towards the American Civil War. DUNCAN ANDREW CAMPBELL lectures at the Department of American Studies, University of Maryland Baltimore County.

I would like to take thee in my arms once more and have the little children around me. . . . But I know it is my duty to stay here and try and be one of the many that God has raised to put down this rebellion and blot out the institution of slavery.--Taylor Peirce

We hear so much good news of victories and all things are working well. Yet there is a sadness over it at last for there is so many wives and mothers left to mourn the loss of some brave son or husband in our late battles and I do not know but I am one of the number that may have to mourn for thee at this very time.--Catharine Peirce

Taylor Peirce was 40 years old when he left his wife and family to enlist in the 22nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He served for three long years and saw action in both theaters of the Civil War-ranging thousands of miles from the siege of Vicksburg through engagements in Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, both Carolinas, and the Shenandoah Valley. During that time he saw his wife only twice on furlough, but still stayed in close contact with her through their intimate and dedicated exchange of letters.
Both ardent Unionists who hated slavery and revered Lincoln, the Peirces wrote nearly every week over their long separation--letters that reveal a deep and abiding love for each other, as well as their strong--willed allegiance to the Union cause. Taylor's letters tell of battles and camp life, drilling and training, brave and cowardly commanders, troop morale, raucous amusements like music and gambling, delinquent paymasters, and his own moral code and motivation for fighting . They include graphic descriptions of the battles around Vicksburg, including vivid details about burning plantation houses, digging canals and trenches, and enduring constant rifle and artillery fire.

Catharine, for her part, reported on family and relatives, the demands of being a single mother with three young children, business affairs, household concerns, weather and crops, events in Des Moines, and national politics, filling gaps in our knowledge of Northern life during the war. Most of all, her letters convey her frustration and aching loneliness in Taylor's absence, as well as her fears for his life, even as other women were becoming widowed by the war.

While there are many collections of letters from Civil War soldiers to their wives, very few include such a rich trove of letters from the homefront. Together they paint an engrossing portrait of a soldier and husband who was trying to do his patriotic and familial duty, and of a wife trying to cope with loneliness and responsibility while longing for her husband's safe return. Beautifully edited and annotated by prize-winning Civil War historian Richard Kiper, they bring to life a nation under siege and provide a rare look at the war's impact on both the common soldier and his family.

The U.S. government's Indian Policy evolved during the 19th century, culminating in the expulsion of the American Indians from their ancestral homelands. Much has been written about Andrew Jackson and the removal of the Five Nations from the American Southeast to present-day Oklahoma. Yet little attention had been paid to the policies of the Lincoln administration and their consequences. The Civil War was catastrophic for the natives of the Indian Territory. More battles were waged in the Indian Territory than in any other theater of the war, and the Five Nations' betrayal by the U.S. government ultimately lead to the destruction of their homes, their sovereignty and their identity.

During its two year history, the cavalry of the Army of the Cumberland fought the Confederates in some of the most important actions of the Civil War, including Stones River, Chickamauga, the Tullahoma Campaign, the pursuit of Joseph Wheeler in October 1863 and the East Tennessee Campaign. They battled with legendary Confederate cavalry units commanded by Nathan Bedford Forrest, John Hunt Morgan, Wheeler and others. By October 1864, the cavalry grew from eight regiments to four divisions-composed of units from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and Tennessee-before participating in Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, where the Union cavalry suffered 30 percent casualties. This history of the Army of the Cumberland's cavalry units analyzes their success and failures and reevaluates their alleged poor service during the Atlanta Campaign.